I AM going to have to come out of the closet and declare ‘I am a climate change denier!’ Let me give you this parallel. One week I read chocolate is bad for you and red wine fantastic, the next week the reverse.

I diligently prepared for technological Armageddon to occur on New Year’s Eve 2000? What happened! A big fat zilch.

That’s how I feel about climate change. I just don’t know what to believe. Twenty years ago they were telling us that we were entering a new ice age, acid rain was going to melt us all (whatever happened to that?).

Since the time of creation the climate has changed constantly, it’s cyclical and there ‘ain’t’ a lot we can do about it. I certainly don’t believe it is totally all down to the nasty humans.

I do believe in conservation of our resources and sustainability and all that “gubbins”, but that is an entirely different matter.

What has this got to do with a local column on Rossendale matters? Well it’s the wind turbines on Scout Moor. I loathe them with a passion for a number of reasons. They are unsightly, in a location foisted on us (with a token consultation called planning) by our cosmopolitan masters. I bet David Cameron won’t be disturbed by the big ugly lumps of steel when he pulls back his Laura Ashleys. Why is big business so keen to erect these monsters?

The answer? The big profitable subsidies they receive from the government. Why do they give such big subsidies? Because it ticks boxes on protocols organised on far-flung foreign junkets and it’s not their money.

The only way forward is nuclear power. We have come a long way since Chernobyl. For example, there’s an American company called Hyperion that is piloting mini nuclear plants – one the size of a garden shed could power most of Rossendale.

I’ll have to go. There are some very nice men from Greenpeace at the door insisting I go on one of their cruises whale watching. But why do I have to wear this strait jacket chaps?