In the wee hours, Planet Gore reader Ritchie sent along a BBC item on Northern Ireland’s environmental minister Sammy Wilson, who has earned mention in this space for his well-placed antipathy to carbon schemes that kill jobs but do nothing for net emissions, as well as for his skepticism about man’s outsized influence over global climate. Seems that Mr. Wilson has blocked an alarmist ad (produced in England) from running on Northern Irish television. Longer excerpt after the jump.
A Northern Ireland minister’s decision to block a government advertisement campaign on climate change has led to a call for his removal from office.
The advertisements urged people to reduce energy consumption and cut carbon dioxide output.
But Environment Minister Sammy Wilson claimed the adverts were part of an “insidious propaganda campaign”.
Calling for his removal, the Green Party said Mr Wilson made “a laughing stock out of Northern Ireland.”
Sammy Wilson argued that the Scottish executive had objected and stopped the adverts being broadcast. However, the Scottish executive told the BBC the reason it did not run these adverts was because they are already running their own climate change adverts.
He argued that they were “giving people the impression that by turning off the standby light on their TV they could save the world from melting glaciers and being submerged in 40ft of water”.He said that was “patent nonsense”. . . .
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Mr Wilson said he had written to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to say that the advertising campaign Act on CO2 “was not welcome”.
He explained that he did not believe in its message that “man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of climate change” and that the campaign was contrary to his personal views.
He told DECC: “I do not wish for climate change messages to be promoted by other Whitehall departments here”.
But Brian Wilson, of the Green Party, said the environment minister should be removed from office for refusing to recognise climate change.
“He is a climate change sceptic. We have got to take all measures we can to reduce our carbon footprint. Mr Wilson does not agree with that.
“This is totally incompatible with him being minister for the environment,” he said.
Friends of the Earth NI director John Woods said: “It’s bad enough that we have an environment minister who doesn’t accept that human activity is driving climate change, but trying to block advice to people on how they can help tackle it is completely irresponsible.
“The reality is that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists believe that our activities are causing global warming and that urgent action is needed to tackle it.”
The Alliance Party and the SDLP have also criticised Mr Wilson’s decision.
Alliance leader David Ford said: “The simple fact is that there is scientific evidence, accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists, that manmade climate change will affect our environment if it is not brought under control,” he said.
Tommy Gallagher, SDLP, accused Mr Wilson of “political sabotage of an important public awareness campaign”.
“We need all the awareness campaigns we can get on this issue, and in particular we need to ensure that efforts to combat climate change do not become victims of the downturn. The minister must be held accountable for his maverick posturing,” he said.
Northern Ireland’s first minister and party colleague, Peter Robinson, told the Assembly that Mr Wilson was entitled to his opinions, although they did not reflect those of the DUP as a whole.
“He has provoked a debate in Northern Ireland which I suspect would not have taken place had he not made the comments, and every individual must be entitled to their view on the issue. . . .