{"id":7959,"date":"2021-08-16T17:07:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T17:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7959"},"modified":"2021-08-26T08:00:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T08:00:22","slug":"dishwashers-will-be-provided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2021\/08\/16\/dishwashers-will-be-provided\/","title":{"rendered":"Dishwashers will be provided"},"content":{"rendered":"

I see<\/strong> that the Prince of Wales will be speaking at COP26, and that the Pope will attend as well. \u00a0There are also rumours that Greta has squared her attendance at the event with her conscience and so she will \"probably\" be there. \u00a0Given that Sir David Attenborough has already agreed to be People\u2019s Advocate<\/em><\/a> for the event, this is almost a full house, if not quite a royal flush. \u00a0What a pity Mother Teresa is not still alive. Can we hope, I wonder, that the presence of all these celebraties will be enough to persuade the unwilling to come good on all those promises they made in the Paris Agreement and haven't quite lived up to yet?<\/p>\n

I read<\/strong> media accounts that the UK government will be blamed if COP26 doesn't result in significant changes to the world's plans for carbon reductions. \u00a0Whilst it's always tempting to blame the government, this is surely like criticising stadium authorities for a crap performance by the teams on the pitch. \u00a0Is it really the UK's fault that so many countries have not even filed their reduction plans with the UN by the July deadline? \u00a0Whilst we have broad shoulders (and a heavy responsibility for inventing the industrial revolution for others to copy), accepting the blame for the Chinese communist party's reluctance to stop building coal-fired power stations seems a hair shirt too far.<\/p>\n

I am still<\/strong> pondering a government adviser's advice<\/a>\u00a0not to rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. \u00a0What, I wondered, about all those people who don't have dishwashers? \u00a0Maybe, at the day of climate judgement (as Ian Paisley might have said *<\/strong>) dishwashers, along with heat pumps and electric cars, will be provided.<\/p>\n

I have been<\/strong> aware for some time now that my electricity costs have been rising sharply, but unaware until I looked up the data last week that costs have actually doubled since 2011. \u00a0This has been deliberate policy as electricity customers (ie, everyone) has been paying for the costs of shifting to wind, solar and other renewables as sources of power. \u00a0Gas customers having been spared this trauma so far, but are now in the firing line and the news is being broken to them quietly in the hope they'll not notice.<\/p>\n

I discover<\/strong> that Bernard Looney, the BP CEO, said that he was seeing \u201can improving outlook for the environment\". \u00a0As this came less than a year after his great green reset policy \u2013 which the Times noted involved \u201creimagining energy\u201d \u2013 I fancifully expected more than greenwashing. \u00a0However, 'twas not even this, as \"environment\" referred to the price of oil which, as you'll have noted, is on the up and up. \u00a0Great for profits \u2013 and dividends \u2013 which as Milo Minderbinder<\/a>\u00a0noted, ultimately enrich us all.<\/p>\n

I received<\/strong> a begging email last week which said: \"With the IPCC report this week declaring code red for humanity,\u00a0anger, panic and despair are all natural responses. \u00a0But what we need now is measured, decisive action. \u00a0One way to take action is by donating\u00a0to\u00a0The Great Imagining<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0helping us carry out our\u00a0plan\u00a0to inspire\u00a0a greener, fairer, wiser future.\" \u00a0But it wasn't the IPPC that talked about \"code red\", it was the UN Secretary General which is not the same thing at all. \u00a0As ever, misrepresentation goes round the world before the truth has got its boots on.<\/p>\n

................................<\/p>\n

*\u00a0<\/strong>The story goes that\u00a0Paisley was preaching on the soon-to-come\u00a0Day of Judgement,\u00a0<\/em>and had just noted there would be much weeping and gnashing of teeth [Luke 13:28<\/a>] when a voice from the back called out: \u201cReverend Paisley! \u00a0What about those of us who have no teeth?\" \u00a0\"Teeth\" Paisley thundered back, \"will be provided.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I see that the Prince of Wales will be speaking at COP26, and that the Pope will attend as well. \u00a0There are also rumours that Greta has squared her attendance at the event with her conscience and so she will...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}