Tony Blair gives 'muddled' green leadership
Posted by DavidM in Green Politics | 9 January 2007
For a government that has raised environmental issues on the world stage, Tony Blair's personal attitude towards climate change seems to be somewhat behind his political statements.
In a Sky News interview he basically told the reporter that no politician would tell people to fly less and seemed convinced that all we had to do was wait for technology to improve and that would sort things out.
What a load of rubbish. Technology will only be developed if there is profit to be made and government - not just in the UK - needs to create a framework to make that happen.
The other statement that disappointed me was "Britain is 2% of the world's emissions. We shut down all of Britain's emissions tomorrow - the growth in China will make up the difference within two years".
I've heard this a lot from far less well-informed people as an excuse not to do their bit. Why should I cut my household emissions 20% when my neighbour has a patio heater? Why should we put a tax on aviation fuel when road transport is a bigger polluter? Why should I buy low energy light bulbs when the Chinese are building new coal-fired power stations?
It's the argument of laziness and ignorance. You need to do it because we need to make all these changes. We ALL have an impact and we ALL need to do our bit. And through that we'll show the laggards the way forward.
Tony Blair has lost credibility with these latest statements. I'm not convinced Gordon Brown or David Cameron will be much better, but it's increasingly clear they can't be worse.
