Boot not a 'Biosphere Buddy' then!

Minister Geoffrey Boot MHK is on the spot over granting seismic survey licences for gas exploration off Maughold just as the IPCC says we need to turn the global thermostat down:

www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/climate-targets-may-prove-too-di...

Boot is generally trumpeting the Islands biosphere status so how asks the reporter are the two things compatible? Geoffrey avers we may have to park our aspirations for a while. He is not it seems a ‘Biosphere Buddy’.

Of course the fact they are going to carry out a survey does not mean that gas will be extracted. Remember that plan for 100,000 of thousands of tonnes of aggregate extraction in the seas of Maughold that (thankfully) came to nought.

Boot avers that gas extraction could benefit the Manx economy and be a real income generator. However I tend to agree with the protesters over Climate Change outside the Irish Dail this week who said the real beneficiaries from slowing up moves to avert climate change our business and the big corporations:

www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=SJFPXQtgO8s

Let's be blunt gas extraction has been underway in the Eastern Irish Sea for decades at the Morecambe Bay gas field and it hasn’t led to the people of Lancashire having ‘fivers to burn’. I have my doubts that the fracking now underway in Lancashire will deliver the prosperity some allude to but we may wll get an earthquake or two.

So can we save the planet? I don’t know Geoffrey gets the Ministerial salary and he says we will have to park our aspirations for a while. However I bet as it’s in his constituency he is down at Niarbyl today with Beach Buddies celebrating collecting bits of plastic. It's a difficult balance being a politician!

Images Geoff Boot and Irish Climate Change protesters

Bernard Moffatt