NOTE: This post is a rant about politics, it has nothing to do with AI or NLG!

When I look at politics and public policy, what most angers me is climate change. For 20 years we’ve had solid scientific evidence of the problem and predicted outcomes, but every year atmospheric CO2 keeps on going up. I certainly do not see any change in recent years in the annual increase in CO2 compared to previous years when I look at the data.

The science is well known, and (at least in developed countries) most citizens are aware of and concerned by climate change. However response by governments has been pitiful. One exception is that governments heavily subsidised renewable energy in its early days, which allowed this technology to mature and become competitive; this was a welcome policy which had a real impact. But I cannot think of anything else which had a significant impact on climate change.

Unfortunately, I can also think of many cases where governments and IT communities have refused to address (or even worsened) climate problems; I discuss a few cases below which really bother me.

Banning onshore wind in England

The UK government effectively banned new onshore wind power in England in 2015. Which seems utterly insane; not only does the ban make climate change worse, it also makes energy more expensive (onshore wind is cheap) at a time when many UK households are struggling to pay energy bills. This policy also increases dependence on imported gas, which has national security concerns. As far as I can tell, the justification is that some people think windmills spoil their view; does this really outweigh the climate, financial, and national security benefits of onshore wind?

Indeed, during the short-lived government of Liz Truss last year, there were plans to also make it much harder to build solar power plants (which do not spoil anyone’s view). Even some of Truss’s right-wing colleagues commented that it didnt make any sense for the government to block deals between willing parties (land owners and power companies) which didnt harm anyone else. But I guess Truss’s hatred of pro-green policies overrode her supposed free-market beliefs.

I should say that the above policies did *not* apply to Scotland; Scotland’s devolved government continues to support onshore wind and solar.

The opposition Labour party, which will probably win the next UK general election, has said that it will change the anti-wind policy, which is good. But because of the time scales involved, we need policies that all major parties accept in principle, so that they will continue to be implemented regardless of who is in power. I can only hope that the governing Conservative party becomes more supportive of pro-climate policies, otherwise it will be very difficult for the UK to deliver on its climate promises.

Bitcoin

In the IT world, Bitcoin stands out as a profligate user of energy and contributor to CO2 and climate change. According to Wikipedia, Bitcoin is responsible for 0.4% of global electricity consumption, and 0.2% of global CO2 emissions.

This usage might be acceptable if it provided clear social benefits, but its hard for me to see these, my view is that Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme which is heavily used for money laundering and other criminal activities. And even if we do regard Bitcoin as useful, Bitcoin energy consumption could be massively reduced by switching to a proof-of-stake protocol. Ethereum did this in 2022, and cut energy usage by 99%, but there is no sign of this happening in Bitcoin.

Perhaps I shouldnt be surprised. After all, the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried shows that all the talk by Bitcoin billionaires of doing good and helping society is just that, “talk”; their main goal is to make money and they care nothing about anything else.

India

Around five years ago I sat next to someone from the Indian power industry on an airplane. We talked about climate change, and I said that I was proud that Scotland had managed to close its last big coal power plant. My seatmate commented that this was good, but of limited benefit climate-wise since India was opening a new coal power plant of similar size every month. She was of course 100% right! India is now the largest country in the world population-wise, so we arent going to solve climate change without India doing its bit.

Unfortunately I see little willingness from Indian politicians to do much about this. Indeed, the same politicians are refusing to take significant actions to tackle India’s air pollution crisis. Delhi has the worst air pollution in the world, which may reduce life expectancy by 12 years. So if politicians cannot deal with environmental problems which are killing large numbers of Indians today, its not surprising that they d so little care about climate change in a few decades time.

But while horrendous air pollution in Delhi only affects Indians, climate change affects the entire human race. However there is no mechanism to push India towards adapting policies with global benefits. Similarly when Jair Bolsanaro was president of Brazil and cut down massive chunks of the Amazon rainforest with horrendous climate (and other) effects, there was nothing the rest of the world could do about this. Maybe its time to consider a world government with real powers which could enforce policies which benefit the human race…

Final thoughts

We of course need healthy policy debates about climate change, which look at different options and take costs into consideration. For example, amongst other things the UK needs to massively upgrade its electricity grid and switch to heat pumps for home heating. Doing this will be expensive, disruptive, and subject to capacity constraints (eg UK does not have many people who can install heat pumps), so policy debates make sense.

But I dont see any sign of this in the above cases; eg the ban on onshore wind in England is economically harmful as well as bad for the climate. It seems like a lot of policy makers either do not care about climate change, or are actively hostile to attempts to mitigate it (like former UK PM Truss’s hostility to solar power). And this is that makes me truly furious!