Electricity from wind isn’t cheap and it never will be

Matt Ridley

Politicians should stop endorsing an energy source that isn’t particularly clean or secure, and won’t bring down prices. The MPs who have forced Rishi Sunak into a U-turn on onshore wind power love to repeat the favourite slogan of the wind industry: “wind is cheap”. “Cheap, clean, secure,” says Sir Alok Sharma. “Cheap,” cheeps Ed Miliband. […]

Tagged: 
energy 

The public isn’t being told the full truth about the climate threat

Matt Ridley

If I waved a magic wand and gave the world unlimited clean and cheap energy tomorrow, I expect many climate scientists would be horrified Patrick Brown, the co-director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute in California, has blown the whistle on an open secret about climate science: it’s biased in favour of alarmism. He published […]

Tagged: 
energy 

The BBC has co-opted bad weather to its alarmist climate crusade

Matt Ridley

Yes, heatwaves are getting more intense thanks to global warming, but the alarmism is shameless   On Tuesday this week in Northumberland, the mercury never even reached 16C. I gather from one or two gentle hints on the BBC – sorry, apocalyptic rants – that it’s a bit hotter in the Mediterranean. My point is […]

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Sudan’s lab leak threat marks a terrifying new age of biological warfare

Matt Ridley

Labs have boomed in recent years, heightening the danger of a major accident – or indeed sabotage   Last week a horrifying report emerged from Khartoum, where poor Sudanese civilians are being terrorised by internal conflict. Fighters had seized a biological laboratory that houses samples of measles and cholera. It was said that power cuts may threaten the safe […]

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The sinister truth about bird-killing wind ‘farms’

Matt Ridley

The Tory party must have a death wish now that it has fallen back in love with onshore wind turbines   The Tory party’s move to fall back in love with wind energy, despite its manifest disadvantages of cost, unreliability and inefficient use of land, is a death wish. They will soon rediscover just how […]

Tagged: 
wind 

The search for Covid-19’s origins continues to be hindered by fear of offending China

Matt Ridley

The Lancet Commission is the latest to highlight how seeking the truth has come second to other considerations   The Lancet Commission into “lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic”, written by 40 scientists and public health experts, and chaired by the economist Jeffrey Sachs, has concluded that “the origin of the virus remains […]

Eco-extremism has brought Sri Lanka to its knees

Matt Ridley

An obsession with organic farming ‘in sync with nature’ triggered an unsustainable but predictable economic crisis My article for The Telegraph: Sri Lanka’s collapse, from one of the fastest growing Asian economies to a political, economic and humanitarian horror show, seems to have taken everybody by surprise. Five years ago, the World Bank was extolling […]

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