This section highlights what is known about the country’s Carbon status.

In june 1993 it was argued that, "Britain’s CO2 emissions have been in continual decline for the past 20 years. They peaked in 1973, before the 1974 oil crisis, at the equivalent of 178 mt of Carbon. Most industrial nations are still hugely wasteful in their use of energy and have great potential both to conserve energy and generate it in ways that are less damaging to the environment."

In 1992 the doe estimated that, "UK CO2 emissions in 1990 totalled 160 million tonnes of carbon (mtC)." This estimate has since been revised upwards quite considerably.

"The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions fell to about 9% below 1990 levels in 1998, and are projected to reach about 13.5% below by the end of 2000. This reflects the positive action that has been taken by Government in partnership with other key players, particularly in the business sector."

"The UK releases about 540 million tonnes of CO2 (mtCO2) every year."

It is imperative to appreciate that these figures are fraudulent. They derive solely from data about fossil fuels, "CO2 emission estimates are derived from energy consumption data." In other words, they do not include estimates of the amount of pollution released by cement manufacture, waste incineration, or the vast quantities of manure produced by the bipeds and quadrupeds - see section 2.2.2.1. Secondly, there are no estimates for non-Carbon greenhouse emissions.

"96% of the UK's man-made carbon dioxide emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels for energy use. (Most of the remaining emissions come from cement manufacture and waste incineration)."

"In 1990 transport was responsible for using 33% of all energy consumed in Great Britain of which 80% was attributed to road and 15% to air transport (DOT 1991)."; "In the UK we are responsible for about 540 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. (i.e. approximately 146 mtC - ed). In 1987, road transport was responsible for 100 million tonnes of this total, (27 mtC), with air and rail transport adding another 20 million tonnes."

"Company transport fleets (cars, commercial and goods vehicles) contributed about 10% of CO2 emissions in industry and commerce."

The figures for public transport covers .. "bus and rail transport, shipping within 12km of the coast and aircraft movements below 1 km)." If it seems that emissions have been increasing from public transport, even though there has been a decline in the use of public transport, this might be because the category also includes private air travel.

"Private car travel (excluding use for business mileage) contributes a further 13% of total UK CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions from private car travel are expected to rise by some 19% between 1990 and 2000 on a central projection."

See above.

"Power stations, the largest single producer of carbon dioxide, account for one third of Britain's 159 million tonne output."; "A modestly-sized power station, generating around 500 megawatts, produces about 500 tonnes of carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, each hour, or 120 mtonnes in its 30 year life-time."; "Clearly, we urgently need alternatives to burning fossil fuels to generate our electricity, which in Britain produces one-quarter of our carbon dioxide emissions."

"In 1990, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture were 24.8mtC, or around 12% of the u.k’s total greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions estimated to be 8.7mtC from land use change."; "Each year in the UK, farm animals produce about 200 million tonnes of effluent." It is difficult comparing the 27mtC released by the transport sector with the 200mt of effluent

"Small companies employing less than 500 people account for 45% of the total manufacturing energy bill."

"In the commercial sector the increasing trend for modern electrically powered office equipment (photocopiers, facsimile machines, computers and word processors) and for air conditioned and artificially lit offices has led to a rise in emissions."

"Forestry supplies the wood processing industry, which employs 22,000 people with a turnover of about £1.5 billion."

"In 1990 the public sector was responsible for 9.6 MtC, or about 6% of all UK CO2 emissions."

"Energy use by industry and commerce accounted for almost 50% of all UK CO2 emissions in 1990."

"Historically CO2 emissions from light industry have declined whilst those from commerce have increased."; "In industry, process energy and drive power account for over three quarters of emissions. In commerce the chief source is energy used for space and water heating and air conditioning."

1970 1980 1990 2000 2005 2020

TRANSPORT 23 29 38 45 49 62

Individuals 11 15 21 25 28 36

Industry/Commerce 6 8 11 13 14 19

Public Transport 6 5 6 7 7 8

TOTALS 182 165 160 170 183 221

The removal of Carbon from the atmosphere through Photosynthesis is regarded here as the demand side of the Earth’s Carbon spiral or the importation of Carbon.

The area of water in the united kingdom is approximately 3,230 square km.

The land area of the united kingdom is approximately 241,590 square km.

It has been estimated that virtually no ancient Forests left in britain, "Native forests, which once covered 80% of Britain, have dwindled to about 1.5%. Virtually no primary forest remains ..." Only 10% of the uk is covered in Forests, "Britain is one of the most deforested countries in the world in terms of natural forests." Most of the country’s so-called Forest cover is concentrated in particular areas so that in england ‘Forest’ cover is only 7%, "Government figures show that England has over 960,000 hectares of woodlands and forests, equivalent to about 7% of the land surface. This compares with 10% for Great Britain and an average of 25% for the European Community as a whole."

The environment committee states, "Government figures show that England has over 960,000 hectares of woodlands and forests, equivalent to about 7% of the land surface. This compares with 10% for Great Britain and an average of 25% for the European Community as a whole." The paltry scale of britain’s Forests is manifest in the following quote, "The UK consumes the equivalent of 50 million cubic metres of wood products each year, nearly 90% of which is imported."

"It is estimated that the living, growing trees in British forests currently store 110 million tonnes of carbon. This estimate varies between 90 and 130 million tonnes, depending on how the forest area is defined. In this case the total forest area is taken to be 2.3 million hectares .."

"The largest carbon pools in the UK are soils and forest litter, which together store about 10 billion tonnes of carbon. About five billion tonnes of this total are stored in peat lands which are found mainly in Scotland and which cover 10% of the UK’s total land area. The biomass in woodlands contain some 90 million tonnes of carbon, 30 million tonnes of which are stored in conifers and some 60 million tonnes in broad leaves and mixed woodland."

The amount of Carbon absorbed each year is paltry but the amount of Carbon stored in u.k. Forests is much more substantial. However, the quantity of Carbon stored in the u.k’s Forests is far smaller than the quantity of Carbon that the u.k. releases into the atmosphere each year.

The best means for storing Carbon is undisturbed i.e. ooman free, Forests. Unfortunately there are none in britain.

"Even where forests are harvested on a renewable basis, there is carbon loss of anywhere from 10-25% in temperate and boreal forests. The same reduced carbon storage is found in "recovered" forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural land." The main argument in favour of Forests and Wilderness areas remaining undisturbed is that they store more Carbon than Forests used by oomans.

"Note that croplands and pastures store only very little carbon in their vegetation, on the order of 3-7% of the soil-plus-vegetation total. In this respect, they are not much different from natural grasslands and woodlands. Note further that if croplands and pastures are degraded through mismanagement, they can release once again as much carbon from the soil as the original forest clearing that created them released from vegetation."

No info.

The quantity of Photosynthesis currently being carried out by Photosynthesizers in britain is minimal. The quantity of Photosynthesis currently being stored in britain at present is also tiny.

Government plans for Forestry in the uk are derisory, "Models for biomass accumulation and carbon storage by forests have been used to estimate the quantity of carbon locked up in British forests now and in the future. Figure 20 shows two alternative predictions of carbon storage by British forests over the next fifty years. It is estimated that the living, growing trees in British forests currently store 110 million tonnes of carbon. This estimate varies between 90 and 130 million tonnes, depending on how the forest area is defined. In this case the total forest area is taken to be 2.3 million hectares. If the forest area is maintained but not expanded, carbon storage is predicted to rise slightly to 140 million tonnes by the year 2020 before levelling out around 130 million tonnes. The dashed lines shows predicted carbon storage if the forest area is expanded by a further 0.75 million hectares over the next 50 years. The total quantity of carbon stored rises steadily, reaching 160 million tonnes by the year 2040."

"If we attributed to the English climate a growing potential similar to the world average (actually it is below that) then that area could sequester bio-mass through solar energy at the rate of 2 x 109 GJ/yr."

"It takes one hectare of forest land to absorb five tonnes of carbon a year."

.."evidence from NERC suggests that one million hectares of new forest in the UK would remove 2-5% of the total current annual UK emissions of carbon dioxide but the long term relevance of this will depend on where the forests are, how they are managed, and how the timber is eventually used."

"Britain is one of the most deforested countries in the world in terms of natural forests. Native forests, which once covered 80% of Britain, have dwindled to about 1.5%. Virtually no primary forest remains ..."

"Downing Street has backtracked on a pledge by John Major to keep the Forestry Commission in the public sector, saying that the Prime Minister's comment was drafted incorrectly in the heat of the election campaign. Mr Major assured leaders of the commission's 6,600 staff in a letter six days before the general election that the government had no intention of privatizing the Forestry commission which has assets of £2.2 billion. The commission has sold 405,000 acres since 1981 raising £165 million."

"The Council for the Protection of Rural England's new report, England's Lost Land, shows that 705,000 hectares - that's Greater London, Berkshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire combined - has been turned to housing, industrial development and roads since the war. An area the size of Exeter, Norwich and Oxford is lost every year. Continue at this rate and England will be 20 per cent covered in concrete by 2050. Successive governments, moreover, have politically benefited by understating the degree of urbanization that has occurred: 180,000 urbanized hectares (the size of Greater London) has mysteriously disappeared from the statistics."

"The survey reveals that in the six years from 1984 to 1990 the built up area of Britain grew by around 130 square kilometres a year from 16,100 to 16,900 sqr kilometres. This is an increase equivalent to 16 cities the size of exeter."

Cpre argue that, "The government estimates that roads occupy 690 square miles of England almost 1/5 of our land area. We believe this is likely to be a gross underestimate and at best indicates only the road carriageway."; "Across the UK as a whole we estimate that 2,848 km2 is devoted to roads alone - an area larger than the whole of Leicestershire. And this is not the full picture - a fifth as much land again is taken for parking the vehicles that use the roads. Our research shows that in the UK the area devoted to parking is over 590km2 - a portion of land twice the size of Birmingham. Taking the total area dedicated to roads and parking, each car and lorry in the UK is responsible for over 160m2 of concrete and tarmac. This figure is based on conservative assumptions, and excludes land given over to activities such as building cars or quarrying for the material to build the roads."

"CPRE said the UK’s car parks cover a area of land twice the size of Birmingham. And it said an area larger than Leicestershire is taken up by roads." It estimated that car parks suffocated about 570 km2 - see above.

The labour government wants to construct 43,000 new homes a year, plus associated roads, industries, and leisure facilities, over the next fifteen years, "John Prescott will overrule planners in the South-East this week by ordering 38,000 new houses to be built each year, including 15,200 on green belt land. He will say that he is prepared to compromise on his original plan to build only 900,000 new homes over 15 years, at a rate of 43,000 a year, to reduce the outcry of local authorities before an election." "John prescott sparked anger yesterday by giving the go-ahead for a third of a million new homes in the south-east. They will go up over 5 years at an annual rate of 43,000 houses outside london, and 23,000 in the capital." The government is also going to make it easier for pharmers to build new homes on prime agricultural land, "The change (to be introduced by the government’s white paper) will almost certainly make it easier for farmers to get planning permission to build on so called "best and most versatile" land, or sell it to developers. It ends the central agricultural policy that the primary role of the countryside is to feed the nation. Environmental groups and Opposition politicians will fiercely resist the plan. Damien Green, the Tories' environmental spokesman, said it was "an act of environmental vandalism", adding: "It would be an open invitation to concrete over some of our most beautiful and valuable countryside." Prime farm land, which represents about a third of all agricultural fields in England, has until now been specially protected as a resource for future generations. Although the concept of such land will be retained, the Government wants to remove its unique status. At the moment, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food can order a public inquiry into planning applications to build on prime farm land, which is seen as an effective right of veto."

"Downing Street has also vetoed the possibility, again suggested by the unit's major report on the countryside last year, of placing "environmental conditions" on more than £1 billion worth of arable farm subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy."

"By the middle of next century, one-fifth of England would be urbanized against the present 15%."

"Continue at this rate and England will be 20 per cent covered in concrete by 2050."

"The government is flouting the advice of its own statutory conservation bodies by allowing more than 50 sensitive areas of inshore coastal waters to be explored for oil and gas."

The difference between britain’s Carbon emissions (the supply side of the Carbon spiral or Carbon exports) and its absorption of Carbon through Photosynthesis (the demand side of the Carbon spiral or carbon imports) gives the country’s current Carbon status. The most blatant feature of the above analysis is the sheer paucity of information about the country’s Carbon status. This lack of research reveals all too clearly that the british government does not care about its own environment let alone the Earth’s and that, fundamentally, it doesn’t know what it is talking about.

There is only one source of information which can be used to estimate britain’s current Carbon status.

The doe has calculated that in 1990 the country’s Carbon emissions were roughly, "UK CO2 emissions in 1990 totalled 160 million tonnes of carbon (mtC)." whilst its Carbon absorption was .. "In 1990 .. an estimated 2.9mtC were removed from the atmosphere and stored in forests, vegetation and soils .." Thus, the country’s Carbon status is -157.1mtC which means it is a Carbon debtor to the extent of 157.1mtC. Carbon absorption is a paltry .. "1.4% of total emissions."

"If we attributed to the English climate a growing potential similar to the world average (actually it is below that) then that area could sequester bio-mass through solar energy at the rate of 2 x 109 GJ/yr. The UK energy consumption in recent years has been around 10 x 109 GJ/yr. Thus the natural bio-mass system could not, by a factor of 5, match demand."

"Government scientists calculated that one million hectares of new trees would remove 2-5% of the total UK emissions of CO2."

It has been argued that brutland’s Carbon emissions have been falling as a result of technological advances and that there is a huge potential for further reductions, "Britain’s CO2 emissions have been in continual decline for the past 20 years. They peaked in 1973, before the 1974 oil crisis, at the equivalent of 178 mt of Carbon. Most industrial nations are still hugely wasteful in their use of energy and have great potential both to conserve energy and generate it in ways that are less damaging to the environment." The potential for further reductions in Carbon emissions may be significant but even if they are reduced by 50% (from 160mtC per year to 80mtC whilst Carbon imports remain at 2.9mtC) all this would do is increase the percentage of Carbon imports to Carbon exports from a truly pathetic 1.4% to a minuscule 2.8%. In other words, even a substantial reduction in Carbon emissions of 50% wouldn’t make a noticeable impact on the country’s Carbon status. In other words, it is not sensible for britain to try to balance its Carbon status solely by reducing Carbon emissions. If it tried to do this and aimed to create a balanced Carbon status it would need to reduce Carbon emissions from 160mtC per year to 2.9mtC - a reduction of 98%. This clearly would be absurd. In order to allow it to emit more Carbon than a meagre 2.9mtC whilst still having a balanced Carbon status it would also need to dramatically increase Reforestation.

It was noted above that scientists have estimated that to remove 2-5% of britain’s Carbon emissions it would be necessary to plant a Forest of roughly a million hectares. In other words, in order for brutland to balance its current Carbon budget it would have to plant somewhere between 20-50 million hectares.

Although, at present, there is no way of accurately assessing the country's current Carbon status, there is sufficient information to be able to draw some clear cut conclusions; that the difference between Carbon emissions and Carbon absorption could hardly be greater and that the proportion of Carbon absorption to Carbon emissions is appalling. In other words, brutland makes a chronic 1.4% (perhaps rising to 1.7% in 2010) contribution to the Earth’s life support system in this country. It is scandalous that the brutish government struts around the world stage posing as an environmental hero when, proportionately speaking, it is one of the world’s biggest Earth-wreckers.