By Paul Homewood
Sometimes I’m lost for words!
The Telegraph reports:
Slough has emerged as Britain’s fastest-growing pollution hotspot, with its surging data centre industry driving up greenhouse gas emissions.
The southern town’s concentration of more than 30 massive data centres has pushed up commercial emissions by 52pc since 2005 – making it the only place in the UK to see such a rapid rise in pollution.
Slough’s total emissions equate to five tonnes of CO2 for each of its citizens – far above the three tonnes per person seen in traditional industrial areas such as South Tyneside, the 3.7 tonnes recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne and the four tonnes recorded in Sunderland.
The figures come from the latest government data on the UK’s local and regional greenhouse gas statistics, which said Slough stood out from Britain’s other council authority areas.
“All but one of the UK’s 361 local authority areas have seen a reduction in commercial emissions since 2005,” said the report, covering emissions from 2005-2023.
The one authority that saw an increase is Slough, where commercial sector emissions increased by 52pc between 2005 and 2023. This increase may be because of the large number of data centres that have been built there.”
Full story here.
In any sane world Slough and the Government would be celebrating the influx of these data centres, which bring well paid jobs and boost the local economy. But not according to the wally who runs Slough Council:
Dexter Smith, Conservative leader of Slough Council, said the new figures were a bombshell because of the borough’s aim of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040, with ambitions to achieve this by 2030.
He said Slough’s hopes of improving life expectancy for its citizens – currently 10 years lower than in surrounding boroughs – lay in opening the way for more such high-tech developments.
“I would be devastated if the explanation for this data was down to Slough’s high concentration of data centres … We have 31 data centres with more on the way. Planning applications will have to comply with operating requirements that include stringent control of emissions and being carbon neutral,” he said.
What makes his utterly ludicrous statement even more hypocritical is that he, the Town Council and every inhabitant of Slough will still need and use these data centres wherever they are built.
Jonathan Leake who wrote this piece is little better, calling carbon dioxide “pollution”:
“making it the only place in the UK to see such a rapid rise in pollution”
Maybe someone ought to tell him that it is a natural gas, without which there would be no life on earth!
He also seems quite proud of the fact that:
“By contrast, the emissions from the entire North East of England – a much larger area – fell from 2.9m tonnes in 2005 to just 960,000 tonnes in 2023. It means emissions per person in the North East fell from 13.4 tonnes to just 3.1 tonnes – far lower than in Slough, and a direct consequence of the collapse of energy-intensive industries in the region”.
That’s the way, Jonathan – let’s shut down the whole UK economy to cut emissions!
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Paul Homewood
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