From CLIMATE DEPOT

By Marc Morano

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13523769/Greens-plan-families-travel-abroad-year-frequent-flyer-levies-scrap-Trident-increase-NI-rates.html

Greens plan to clip the wings of families who travel abroad more than once a year with ‘frequent flyer’ levies, scrap Trident and increase NI rates, under party’s election pledges

By KUMAIL JAFFER

Britons who travel abroad more than once a year would face punitive ‘frequent flyer’ levies under Green Party proposals.

The party – which is on course to have its best ever general election result – also wants to raise National Insurance rates for those earning more than £50,000 and scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Announcing a £70billion investment to mend ‘broken Britain’, the Greens said they would fund their plans through a wealth tax on assets above £10million and by expanding the windfall levy on energy giants.

At yesterday’s manifesto launch in the Brighton Pavilion constituency – their only seat in Westminster – Green Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay also proudly unveiled plans to ban domestic short-haul flights in the UK.

Under their ‘frequent flyer’ proposal, travellers taking ten flights a year would be forced to pay an extra £585.

Mr Ramsay told the Mail: ‘This is not intended to affect the average family. People who fly on holiday once a year would not be charged extra because we’re talking about frequent fliers.

‘Just 15 per cent of the population take 70 per cent of the flights. So we’re talking about business people or people who have wealth and fly frequently.’

The Greens have come under fire for their nuclear policies – which include cancelling the Trident nuclear programme and aiming to ‘phase out’ nuclear power.

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Related:

Great Travel Reset: UK Green Party pushes ‘frequent flyer levies’ to reduce your ‘aerial carbon footprint’ – ‘The freedom to fly at will s an incredible privilege’ – ‘Too much air travel is taking place’

Nick Bowett – GreenWorld.org – Jan 2023: We need to think about cutting carbon equivalent emissions in every sector, including those that are difficult to decarbonise – such as aviation – in a culturally sensitive way. Introducing a frequent flyer levy would force frequent fliers to think more about their aerial carbon footprint and give them a financial incentive to lower it. … 

Instead of hiking the price of all flights a fairer way to counter the burgeoning demand for air travel is to impose a frequent flyer levy. Under well detailed Green Party proposals, this would allow people to take one return flight a year, with no extra levy, so people could go on annual holidays and visit any family they may have abroad. A frequent flyer levy will make people consider if the trip they want to make is necessary and incentivise them to consider taking less carbon intensive forms of transport. …

The freedom to fly at will to almost any country in the world – in hours – is an incredible privilege which is now largely overlooked as travelling far afield has become so commonplace, but unfortunately, aviation is notoriously difficult to decarbonise. … Too much air travel is taking place which is warming our planet, hence damaging ecosystems which we rely on for food, and so forth. More British people travel abroad each year than any other nationality, so it is entirely fitting for the UK to show leadership on tackling this aspect of the climate emergency. 

That Donald Trump inflames passions on the left is an understatement, but his plan to scrap America’s wind industry on day one if he takes office has rent-seekers and the wind cult in well-practised apoplexy. How dare anyone criticise an ‘industry’ that soaks up an endless stream of subsidies and can’t deliver electricity as and when power consumers need it?

Well, the Donald is nothing if not audacious. And rarely holds back.

Which, predictably enough, sent the wind industry shills at The Guardian into overdrive, as Charles Rotter outlines below.

Trump Twirls the Windmills of Doom: The Guardian’s Theatrical Take
Watts Up With That?
Charles Rotter
15 May 2024

Ah, The Guardian, ever the beacon of balanced journalism, has outdone itself yet again. With a flourish of melodramatic despair, they’ve painted a portrait of Donald Trump as an eco-villain, brandishing policies like a black cape in a horror show of environmental doom. Let’s dive into their latest apocalyptic prophecy.

Donald Trump has vowed to immediately halt offshore wind energy projects “on day one” of a new term as US president, in his most explicit threat yet to the industry and the latest in a series of promises to undo key aspects of the transition to cleaner energy.

The drama unfolds with Trump, the presumed puppet master of planetary destruction, vowing to dismantle the beloved wind projects. Never mind that the industry might warrant a critical inspection of its impacts; The Guardian is more interested in framing this as an opening scene of a Shakespearean tragedy.

Trump repeated false accusations about wind projects as being lethal to whales during a rally on Saturday in Wildwood, a resort city on New Jersey’s coast, promising to stamp out an industry that has been enthusiastically backed by Joe Biden.

Here, Trump is almost comically vilified, conjuring images of dead whales washing up by the dozens, courtesy of those nefarious wind farms. The Guardian, in its infinite wisdom, assures us these claims are “false,” brushing aside any pesky nuances about the environmental cost of these structures.

“They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is,” Trump said of the wind turbines. “They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales.”

One can almost hear the ominous music swell as Trump lists the crimes of these whirling dervishes of doom. Of course, The Guardian couldn’t possibly entertain the thought that he might be exaggerating but not entirely fabricating. Instead, they prefer their villains cartoonish and their plots black and white.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get more theatrical:

McLeod said that there has been a concerted misinformation campaign, funded by oil and gas interests, to mislead voters. “Big oil is benefiting from all of this fear mongering,” she said.

The plot thickens with the introduction of Big Oil, the shadowy antagonist lurking behind the curtain. According to The Guardian’s script, anyone who questions the sanctity of wind power must be a marionette dancing on petroleum-coated strings.

Finally, Trump’s distaste for the Paris Agreement is presented not as a policy position but as a nefarious scheme to single-handedly warm the globe:

“In one of the most vivid illustrations of his stance towards the climate crisis, Trump removed the US from the Paris climate agreement during his first White House term.”

…

“The Paris climate accord does nothing to actually improve the environment here in the United States or globally,” Mandy Gunasekara, Trump’s former EPA chief of staff, told the Guardian in February.

In the world according to The Guardian, this statement is less a legitimate argument and more a declaration of war against Mother Earth, conveniently ignoring any substantive issues with the agreement.

In this latest piece The Guardian crafts a narrative so richly woven with bias that one could mistake it for a tapestry of fiction. Trump’s environmental policy positions, whether one agrees with them or not, deserve a platform for discussion rather than dismissal as the raving of a would-be planet plunderer.

So here’s to The Guardian, our tireless sentinel against the apocalypse, ever vigilant, ever fearful, ever entertaining. If journalism ever tires them, there’s always a spot open in Hollywood scriptwriting. Cheers to that!
Watts Up With That?