{"id":283468,"date":"2023-10-15T23:02:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T21:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283468"},"modified":"2023-10-15T23:02:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T21:02:58","slug":"euan-mearns-letter-to-the-pj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283468","title":{"rendered":"Euan Mearns\u2019 Letter To The\u00a0P&J"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Renewable green energy and not climate change is destroying Scotland\u2019s landscape.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Euan Mearns has had another letter published his local newspaper.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that there is real opposition growing in the Highlands against wind farms.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have pasted the letter at the bottom as well, for easy reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

Renewable infrastructure and not climate change is destroying Scotland\u2019s landscape<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir,- In response to the article published by the Director of Communications at Scottish Renewables on 7th<\/sup> October.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article claimed that climate change was the greatest threat to our landscape. I enjoy walking in the Scottish hills and glens and can see no evidence for the change to the landscape claimed by the author. What is all too visible, especially in NE Scotland, are wind turbines everywhere. Turning to our pastoral landscape the most notable change are bright yellow fields of rape in the Spring. Actual impacts of climate change on our landscape are elusive to find while measures deployed to combat climate change are everywhere, and are not pretty.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the UK was responsible for 1% of global fossil fuel derived CO2<\/sub> emissions (BP review, one of the gold standards for global energy data). We can assume that Scotland accounted for about 10% of the UK total, in other words we account for 0.1% of the global total (that is one thousandth). It is wrong to argue that eliminating this tiny amount is going to make any difference to global climate, let alone to suggest that we are engaged in a fight to save the global climate. This kind of groundless scaremongering is evidently harming the mental health of our children. Only the OECD are engaged in this virtue signalling crusade. Most of the rest of the world (China, India, Russia and the Middle East) are going to carry on as before, gaining competitive advantage over the OECD for every year that passes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is claimed that wind power is cheap and reliable. If so, then let us get rid of all the subsidies and support mechanisms \u2013 feed in tariffs, contracts for difference and constraint payments. It is absurd that we should pay companies to not produce when the wind blows too hard. The claim of \u201ccheap\u201d is also disingenuous since the way electricity costs are calculated are performed on a steeply sloping playing field. It may be the case that the cost of a megawatt hour for wind is lower than the equivalent for gas. But this ignores all the ancillary costs of providing a stable and secure supply and the transmission lines required to deliver wind power to its distant market. It does happen that the wind blows nowhere across the whole of western Europe, from the UK to Sweden, Germany and Spain. At these times it is necessary to fall back on backup, normally provided by natural gas. It therefore becomes necessary to maintain a whole fleet of combined cycle gas turbines, enough to power the whole country, for occasional use. This includes maintaining the whole gas production and import infrastructure \u2013 pipelines and liquefied natural gas trains etc. The cost of this support mechanism is rarely reported, it seems likely that it will be huge. To claim that wind is reliable is a fantasy. If it were reliable then we would not need the vast support mechanism outlined above.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe network was designed for fossil fuels a century ago\u201d. This is also untrue. The Scottish grid probably came into being around 1900. Then, coal fired power generation took place in cities causing horrific pollution. The clean air act of 1956 resulted in a transformation with large power stations with tall chimneys like Longannet (1973 to 2016) being moved to rural areas, but still close to population centres to minimise transmission costs and losses. In the 1950s we saw the development of hydroelectric power that was the beginning of power stations and new grid everywhere. Hydroelectric power is infinitely superior to wind and solar, but has still caused immense environmental harm.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nuclear age dawned in Scotland with the first reactor at Dounreay in 1955. This was followed by Chapelcross in 1959 and Hunterston A in 1964. The GW scale Hunterston B came in 1976 and Torness in 1988. All of these events led to grid extensions, but again, with the exception of the experimental breeder reactor at Dounreay, all were built close to population centres to minimise transmission costs and losses.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article in question calls for 11GW of onshore wind and 20GW of offshore wind. Peak electricity demand in Scotland is likely to be around 5 GW. This is an estimate since the deployment of large amounts of unmetered wind and solar obscures what is actually going on. Given that we already have about 1GW of hydro and 1.2 GW of nuclear, the deficit is around 3.8 GW of unmet demand. Why do we need 31GW of wind to cover this? The honest answer is likely to be to line the pockets of unscrupulous developers. Wind developers and politicians need to come clean on where all this surplus electricity will be used. The likely answer will be the midlands of England requiring about 25 Beauly to Denny scale power lines, each, hundreds of miles long. Where are they going to go, what is this going to cost and who is going to pay for it? Turning Scotland into a vast power station to enable England to reach silly CO2 reduction targets does not seem like a good idea whether you sit on the Unionist or Nationalist side of the debate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Euan Mearns<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aberdeen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renewable green energy and not climate change is destroying Scotland\u2019s landscape. From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT By Paul Homewood Euan Mearns has had another letter published his local newspaper. It appears that there is real opposition growing in the Highlands against wind farms. I have pasted the letter at the bottom as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":283472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Renewable green energy and not climate change is destroying Scotland\u2019s landscape.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818076,691823656,691819094,691818180],"class_list":{"0":"post-283468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-co2","10":"tag-euan-mearns","11":"tag-renewable-green-energy","12":"tag-wind-farms","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0103862334-GettyImages-73179718.jpg?fit=1024%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1bK4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":280955,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=280955","url_meta":{"origin":283468,"position":0},"title":"Public need to be able to scrutinise the true costs on net-zero energy policy\u2013Euan Mearns","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Public need to be able to scrutinise the true costs on net-zero energy policy","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00ZEP-blogs-2.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00ZEP-blogs-2.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00ZEP-blogs-2.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00ZEP-blogs-2.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00ZEP-blogs-2.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":284456,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=284456","url_meta":{"origin":283468,"position":1},"title":"Harvesting subsidies to produce nothing of value\u2013Euan Mearns","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Euan Mearns has B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in geology from The University of Aberdeen. He worked as a researcher at The University of Oslo and then The Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology for a total of 8 years. In 1991 he set up a company in Aberdeen, Scotland providing isotope\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate Change Act\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Change Act","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change-act"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00Apocalypse.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00Apocalypse.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00Apocalypse.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00Apocalypse.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":291058,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=291058","url_meta":{"origin":283468,"position":2},"title":"Deluded Over Wind and Solar Security\u2013Euan Mearns","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"13\/12\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Sir, I imagine many P&J readers will be wearing woolly hats and jumpers, huddled around a candle trying to keep warm. It is very cold, calm and dark outside. Ideal conditions for excess winter deaths.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate crisis\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate crisis","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-crisis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0energy-solar-panels-wind-farm-sunset.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0energy-solar-panels-wind-farm-sunset.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0energy-solar-panels-wind-farm-sunset.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0energy-solar-panels-wind-farm-sunset.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0energy-solar-panels-wind-farm-sunset.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":286243,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286243","url_meta":{"origin":283468,"position":3},"title":"This Isn\u2019t the First Time in Human History Our Winters Have Become\u00a0Milder","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This\u00a0Letter to the Editor,\u00a0written by CO2 Coalition Member\u00a0Euan Mearns, was published in The Press and Journal, October 26, 2023. 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Sir, Lorna Slater (Scottish Green Party) has announced that the Scottish Government is to proceed with up to 6GW of solar PV by 2030 (P&J Oct 30th). What will this mean for Scottish power supply? 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Protest from the UK Grassroots","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"16\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The fantasy of politicians\u00a0is destroying landscapes and economics. There is no button for changing the climate. From \u00a0Master Resource. By Robert Bradley Jr. \u201cWhat we now have instead are vast centralised wind and solar power stations distributed outside of population centres, and quite distant to the eventual market for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"climate alarmism\"","block_context":{"text":"climate alarmism","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarmism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/027062023_414142996.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/027062023_414142996.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/027062023_414142996.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/027062023_414142996.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/027062023_414142996.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283468"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283476,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283468\/revisions\/283476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/283472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=283468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=283468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}