Timothy Birdnow

Here is a bit of an older story I just came across. Turns out the British Navy is moving backwards, converting the HMS Prince of Wales to run on wood pellets! I kid you not.

From the article:

"In a widely anticipated move, it was announced today that one of Britain’s new aircraft carriers will be converted to run on wood pellets. The two new Queen Elizabeth class carriers, originally designed to be nuclear powered were allegedly converted to oil power early on in the design program to save money. It now comes as no surprise that THE Prince of Wales, well known for his eco-sensibility, has persuaded The Admiralty to go one step further towards a truly sustainable Royal Navy.

The Prince has also proposed that the deck of the super carrier be laid with solar panels to further boost the green arsenal of this fearsome weapon of war. The admiralty said they were looking at the proposal seriously while noting that in future Britain may have to only pick fights with sunny countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Solar won’t work in the S Atlantic

said Rear Admiral Sir Lord Chip Woodboard MBE CBE Knight of the Garter."

end excerpt.

Did you buy that? The key to good satire is to nibble on the edges of reasonableness, and frankly, the modern Green movement has gone pretty much this crazy. Take for example the fact that the U.S. Navy is now using biofuels to partially power aircraft carriers. Yes, the Navy actually intends to do this.

Oh, there are so many things that one would suspect were satire if we didn't know better. Consider the space shuttle Columbia disaster; it happened because NASA switched to "eco-friendly" insulation that did not adhere to the orbiter properly. See, they didn't wanto to pollute the air with the old tried-and-true insulation (reentry always burns some up) so they went Green with the result being the total destruction of Columbia. Of course they never really owned up to that. Or take wind farms, which act as huge food processors and chop up all manner of endangered birds and whatnot. Environmentalists cut water off to California's Imperial Valley, one of the richest farm regions on Earth, because some bait fish was not faring well downstream.

So if you fell for the first part of this it is easily forgiven; what the Gang Green is doing makes Swift appear to be a serious pragmatist.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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