How Saeima deputy Kiršteins misleads about climate change / Article

Almost all world climates researchers and scientific literature confirms that the global average temperature is increasing as a result of human economic activity. The main reason is the greenhouse effect gas, which mainly originate from the burning of fossil energy resources. The deputy regularly denies this in his public communication. He blames solar activity and underwater volcanoes for climate change.

In the Saeima debate, Kirstein also mentioned more specific statements that supposedly prove natural warming of the atmosphere: “Uppsala University research has proven: even if all the world’s oil reserves were burned in one moment, the climate would not change even by a hundredth of a degree.”

Kirstein explained that he got the information from economist Steven Lieb’s book published 14 years ago book “Game Over”. “Re:Check” found that the Uppsala University mentioned in the book study rather than confirming Kirstein’s statement, it simply indicates that the world’s available oil reserves are smaller than previously thought. The author of the book has warned that, as a result, it may be necessary to resort to more extensive burning of coal, which will harm the climate even more.

Studies found in the scientific literature show that if all the fossil energy resources available in the world were burned, the average global temperature could increase by 6 to 9 degrees Celsius.

Kirstein also spoke about the European Commission initiative equip newly built buildings with solar panels.

He suggested that such a plan would not work in Latvia: “Dear people, you will get the power of those solar panels, those 10 kilowatts, for two hours in the middle of June. Even in August, you won’t get them either in the morning or in the evening. Not to mention October, November, December, January and so on.”

Laila Zemīte, a researcher at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Environmental Engineering at Riga Technical University, explained that this is a myth: “There is sunshine in Latvia, because solar panels, if we are talking about electricity production, are produced from solar radiation. Well, today we have a cloudy day, but yesterday the sun was shining and even then the solar panels produce. Of course, it’s not as much as it is in the summer, but still.”

in Latvia was producing only 10% less solar energy than, for example, France or southern Germany. Moreover, more than in Great Britain and Sweden. There, too, this technology is economically and technically justified.

“We can see very well that other Northern European countries, despite the “boom” of solar panels in 2022, are still well ahead of us with the use of solar panels – even several times over,” noted Zemīte.

Finally, Kirstein called for nuclear power plants to be built instead of wind farms. He said that, for example, the company “Westinghouse” could build the large nuclear power plant for 5 billion euros, because the company built a power plant for that price in the USA. Kirstein did not respond to a request to provide the source of the information. “Re:Check” failed to find confirmation of this, but “Westinghouse” has committed to build nuclear power plant in Poland. It could cost the country around 20 billion euros, the Polish Prime Minister announced.

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