(Memphis WREG) A mystery is unfolding across MidSouth farms.

Something is killing crops, trees, even weeds and nobody can explain why.

Farmers are scratching their heads and some are worried their crops may be lost to the mysterious plague.

It’s happening along a large swath of land near the Shelby and Tipton county border along Herring Hill Road and elsewhere near the Mississippi River bottoms.

Tiny dots appear to have burned onto leaves of all types of plants, and they appear different depending on the plant.

On corn stalks, the dots seem to turn white in the center.

On other plants, a white dust speckles the leaves and then destroys the green life underneath.

“We found it all in the herbs, in the flowers, in the plum tree, in the weeds,” said organic farmer Toni Holt. “It’s apparently in everything.”

Holt grows organic produce that she sells at area farmers’ markets.

As she and other farmers inspect the new growth covered in the perplexing plague, they fear their entire crop may be lost.

Less than ten miles from Holt’s crops, the damage could possibly hit hundreds of acres of corn at Wilder Farms.

It appears to have hit everything in its path.

There does not seem to be anything in common with the affected plants.

The Holts raise organic crops, so they don’t spray pesticides on any of their fruits and vegetables.

The first thought among some was a new parasite or insect caused the damage, but Wilder farms sprays pesticides and the damage there is exactly the same.

Farmers first noticed the damaging dots over the weekend.

Then Holt came home to find baby birds dead in their nests.

“There are two dead birds hanging out of two different bird houses, so we’re concerned about that. We don’t know if it’s related, but it’s alarming,” said Holt. “We’ve got horses, we’re concerned about the horses on the grass. We’ve got chickens. We sell our eggs at the market.”

Farmers we spoke with are convinced something in the air caused this damage.

They’re asking the USDA and other experts to look into the problem, and so are we.

FAST FACTS:

* Small dots appear to “burn” through leaves
* Area affected is along Tipton and Shelby County line
* Farmers afraid they may lose their entire crop

(Raw Story) As the latest effort to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico meets with failure, the idea of nuking the immediate area to seal the oil underground is gaining steam among some energy experts and researchers.

One prominent energy expert known for predicting the oil price spike of 2008 says sending a small nuclear bomb down the leaking well is “probably the only thing we can do” to stop the leak.

Matt Simmons, founder of energy investment bank Simmons & Company, also says that there is evidence of a second oil leak about five to seven miles from the initial leak that BP has focused on fixing.

The second leak is so large that the initial one is “minor” in comparison.

Simmons spoke to Bloomberg News on Friday, before BP announced that its latest effort to plug the leak, the “top kill” method, had failed.

A week ago Sunday the first research vessel was commissioned by NOAA to scour the area,” he said. They found “a gigantic plume” growing about five to seven miles from the site of the original leak, Simmons said.

Simmons said the US government should take the effort to fix the leak away from BP and put the military in charge.

“Probably the only thing we can do is create a weapons system and send it down 18,000 feet and detonate it, hopefully encasing the oil,” he said.

This idea echoes a Russian newspaper that earlier this month suggested the US detonate a small nuclear bomb to seal the oil beneath the sea. Komsomoloskaya Pravda argued that Russia had successfully used nuclear weapons to seal oil spills on five occasions in the past.

Live Science reports:

Weapons labs in the former Soviet Union developed special nukes for use to help pinch off the gas wells. They believed that the force from a nuclear explosion could squeeze shut any hole within 82 to 164 feet (25 to 50 meters), depending on the explosion’s power. That required drilling holes to place the nuclear device close to the target wells.

A first test in the fall of 1966 proved successful in sealing up an underground gas well in southern Uzbekistan, and so the Russians used nukes four more times for capping runaway wells.

Simmons also told Bloomberg that the idea to use radical measures like a nuclear bomb to seal the leak is probably not being contemplated by decision-makers” because BP is still totally in charge of the news and they have everyone focused on the top kill.”

Asked by a Bloomberg reporter about the risks involved in setting off a nuclear bomb off the coast of Louisiana, Simmons argued that a nuclear explosion deep inside a well bore would have little effect on surrounding areas.

“If you’re 18,000 feet under the sea bed, it wont do anything on the surface” he said.

Joe Wiesenthal at Business Insider says the idea of using nukes will be getting a lot of attention now that the “top kill” procedure has failed.

Next, the so-called “nuclear option” is about to get a lot of attention. In this case, of course, nuclear option is not a euphemism. It’s the real idea that the best way to kill this thing is to stick a small nuke in there and bury the well under rubble. By the middle of the coming week, it will be all over cable news, as pundits press The White House hard on whether it’s being considered and why not.

How Will A Nuclear Bomb Stop The Oil Leak?

(MSN 9News) A NSW government rebate will be expanded to more than one million electricity consumers, to allay fears some families will be left in the dark by the state’s largest-ever electricity price increases.

Electricity bills in NSW will soar by up to a total of 64 per cent over the next three years, with the federal government’s proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) and rising network infrastructure costs largely to blame.

The outcome has sparked fears other states and territories could be similarly affected if the Carbon Reduction Scheme goes ahead in 20011 as planned.

The NSW hikes, which are even higher than those first proposed by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) in December, will see average electricity bills rocketing by between $577 and $918 a year by 2013.

Acting chairman and chief executive Jim Cox said the increases were the biggest ever presided over by the tribunal and conceded there could be similar rises in other states.

“I don’t think we’ve had anything as big as this one,” he said.

NSW Energy Minister John Robertson said the government would expand the energy rebate to an additional 275,000 people.

Assistance will now be given to all Commonwealth healthcare card holders, low-income card holders, students, and households receiving farm family assistance.

One million customers will be covered by the $145 annual rebate, about a third of the state’s households.

Mr Robertson and NSW Premier Kristina Keneally acknowledged the price hikes would burden NSW families, already struggling under rising living costs.

“I’m disappointed with IPART’s decision today to increase electricity prices,” Mr Robertson said.

“We know this is going to hit families hard.”

The government would also legislate for an energy price comparison website, so consumers could get “the best deal possible for their energy”, Mr Robertson said.

Ms Keneally said she was concerned about the impact of the hikes but deflected criticism from the opposition and business that a lack of government investment in electricity infrastructure had caused the increases.

“To suggest that energy costs will not increase either with or without IPART is nonsense,” Ms Keneally said.

“What matters is that we have practical solutions that we can offer to support families in meeting those costs, and that is precisely what we are delivering.”

Welfare group the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) welcomed the rebate boost, saying it would provide “real relief” to the state’s most vulnerable.

“While the price increases will still cause difficulties for low income households, these changes to the energy rebate scheme are a step in the right direction,” NCOSS director Alison Peters said.

But business groups were less supportive, blaming poor investment in electricity infrastructure for the price hike.

“The state government stripped dividends from electricity companies and under invested in necessary poles and wires,” NSW Business Chamber policy director Paul Orton said.

The opposition called on the Keneally government to reject IPART’s determination.

“The government should reject these costs and come back to something families could afford,” opposition energy spokesman Duncan Gay said.

The IPART determination was also a blow to the Rudd government and its stalled CPRS legislation, which has been twice rejected by the Senate.

Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong defended the legislation, saying NSW network costs were to blame.

“Retail electricity prices for a typical residential customer in NSW will rise … as a result of network factors that are entirely unrelated to the carbon pollution reduction scheme,” she said.

Even if it doesn’t go ahead, NSW will still face higher electricity costs with prices set to rise by up to 42 per cent by 2013.

Federal Nationals Leader Warren Truss said Australia’s other electricity consumers risked higher prices.

“The government is proposing a tax that will hit every family, but yet do nothing to help the environment or lower temperatures,” he said.

This week’s bitter cold was enough to freeze over Lake Erie’s surface.

But that doesn’t mean you take a short-cut across the ice to Canada.

Jim Kosarik, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, estimated the lake is 98 percent covered by ice. Some of the lake is covered by chunks and plates of ice that can move around in the wind.

Most of the lake freezes over about six of every 10 years, Korsarik said, and we’re right on schedule for when that usually happens — mid-January.

So did the ice break the Lake Erie snow machine for the season?

Not entirely.

Kosarik said splits and cracks in the ice are enough to produce lake-effect snow. And a north wind can carry lake-effect from other Great Lakes — particularly Lake Huron — to our area.

And Lake Erie waters can reopen quickly, he said, if we have several days in a row of temperatures in the 40s and 50s.

But there’s no chance of that this week.

Kosarik said Greater Cleveland will remain in the deep freeze with below-average temperatures through Friday.

Our normal high temperatures for this time of year are about 32 degrees he said. But we won’t climb out of the teens and low 20s for a few more days.

Incandescent light bulbs, plastic bags, orange peels, Styrofoam coffee cups, Jacuzzi hot tubs — these are crimes against the environment, according to automaker Audi. On Sunday, during the Super Bowl gladiatorial event, Audi ran a series of ads depicting an Eco Gestapo cracking down on citizens engaged in serious crimes against the environment.

One of the ads depicts a police checkpoint where the Fourth Amendment is wantonly violated. In the recent past, such illegal checkpoints were used to find drunk drivers. In Al Gore’s Brave New World, they will be used to search for criminals with plastic bottles.

The “lighthearted” ads are designed to send a strong message — there are green crimes and it is acceptable for government to respond in police state fashion.

Governments around the world have already established Green Cops. In the UK, the Green Gestapo have the authority to call on the Environmental Agency’s national network of hundreds of pollution inspectors. New York City’s Department of Environmental Conservation already has a team of twenty officers called the “Green Police” and they have the authority to enforce environmental regulations and issue citations to environmental violators. For instance, the Green Police have the authority to pull over vehicles that are not complying with emission standards.

At first glance it appears Audi is merely cashing in on the eco frenzy to sell its low emission automobiles. The larger agenda is to get the plebs accustomed to the idea that their lifestyles are crimes against the earth and in response government must tax, fine, and even arrest violators. It is part of a propaganda effort to soften citizens up to a global carbon tax and fascist police state methods in order to enforce the a new green orthodoxy.

Who are the Green Police?

Green Police: Who are they? Here is a quick primer.

Every day consumers around the globe are faced with a myriad of decisions in their quest to become more environmentally responsible citizens. Paper or plastic? Bottled water or tap water? Gas or electric? Compost Bucket or Recycling Bin? So many questions; yet so many conflicting answers. It can be overwhelming.

Now consumers have help, from the Green Police.

As part of the lead up to their third consecutive Super Bowl ad, Audi has created a fictional Green Police unit that are caricatures of today’s “green movement”. The Green Police are a humorous group of individuals that have joined forces in an effort to collectively help guide consumers to make the right decision when it comes to the environment. They’re not here to judge, merely to guide these decisions.

Coincidentally, there are numerous real Green Police units globally that are furthering green practices and environmental issues. For example, Israel’s main arm of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the area of enforcement and deterrence is called; you guess it, the Green Police. New York has officers within the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation that are fondly called the “Green Police”. The Green Police is also the popular name for Vietnam’s Environmental Police Department and the UK has a group who dresses in green as part of the Environment Agency’s squad to monitor excessive CO2 emissions.

On the list of insane public policy moves we have come to expect from the current administration, Cap and Tax, Obamacare and Union Card Check, a fourth has garnered relatively little attention, although the implications for all Americans may be among the most far-reaching. The recurring theme is centralized control.

On Monday, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will host a rare Congressional “Field Hearing“. A Congressional delegation will venture out of the beltway and actually devote time to a problem in our country. Better yet, they will be listening to real citizens. Sort of.

At issue is what residents are calling a government-made drought in the Central and San Joaquin Valleys of California. Legal and environmental regulations in the Endangered Species Act has resulted in the diversion of 200 billion gallons of water from the agricultural heartland of California into the Ocean. According to California farmer Rose Corona,

“Potentially over $20 billion of California’s $43 billion of agricultural revenue could be decimated in America’s greatest breadbasket as farmers lose their farms and residents are forced to import food from China. While the solutions are not simple, local government officials are not even able to attempt them.”

Two thirds of California’s water is in Northern California, but two thirds of the people live in Southern California. Over the last generation, a series of aquaducts and canals was built to divert some of the plentiful water in the North so that instead of raising the sea level (as Al Gore warns us is imminent) the fresh water will irrigate incredibly productive land. The five counties effected provide tens of thousands of jobs and a stunning $20 billion of food output.

So why would politicians in California, a state that is already bankrupt, do anything other that mount a united battle to find a solution? That is hard to say. Instead there are deep and often ugly divisions and battle lines such as radical environmentalist on one side and farmers and migrant workers on the other.

Officials are perplexed to find an explanation for the declining population of the delta smelt, a small bait fish. It is also true that the salmon industry is concerned. So it is understandable that regulators would force action. What is not understandable is why the game of man vs beast is tilted at every turn toward the beast.

Consider that the judicial solution holds that if the fish population is declining, we will leave more water in the river and see if that works. No one knows if it will. Maybe there is a chemical or biological explanation, but we will take a chance because the lives of fish are at stake.

So when a compromise solution is proposed, called the “Two Gates” project, that would restore water and possibly protect fish, the Obama administration’s Interior Secretary, Ken Salzar put the brakes on it. So we will experiment to put fish over people, but we will not experiment to put people over fish. How is that Hope and Change working for you?

As for the rest of us, the implications are huge, not just for our food bills, but for establishing the precedent of allowing the Federal government this level of control over water. When government takes your water, they take the value of your land nay, they steal the value of your land.

Missouri lost this battle over the last several years and unlike California, we have to drive hundreds of miles to find anything that looks like a desert. Nevertheless, the Government used the same Act to withhold water from the State after which the river is named, favoring the pallid sturgeon over farmers. Get the pattern?

Now consider for a moment that we are not just talking about California farmers, nor just our food supply, we are talking about who controls the food supply.

This area of California is some of the most productive in the Country producing nearly half of America’s produce including 55% or our asparagus, 90% of our strawberries and 100% of our olives. When the 35,000 unemployed residents of the region look for help at the food pantries they drive past idle asparagus fields to get their canned asparagus from China. So we depend on Islamists for oil and now China not just for cash but for food!

So residents of California, and really the rest of us, have no other hope than Congressional action. They need Congress to immediately pass Congressman Devin Nunes‘ Bill, the aptly named “Turn the Pumps on Act“. Amazingly, the legislation to help California out of this crisis is bottled up in Committee by a Californian–Nancy Pelosi. Nunes is asking his colleagues to sign the discharge petition. Is your Congressman on the list?

Although Rose Corona and others are pleased with the leadership of Congressmen Nunes and McClintock who have pursued the “Field Hearing” that will take place Monday, they remain angry about several points including:

• Why the hearing is located in Los Angeles, over 200 miles from the effected area?
• Why Democrats get five witnesses and Republicans only one?
• Why was the “Two Gates” solution postponed indefinitely under the radar last week by the Obama administration?
• Whether California’s Congressional Democrats are willing to move the majority Party in Congress to act?

Because the travel distance is such a strain on both the farmers and the concerned citizens in that area, Corona and other Pro-water coalition groups are calling on all Patriots and Tea Party Activists to come and show their support for a solution in two locations. A Town Hall meeting with Representatives Nunes, McClintock, McCarthy and Bishop (R-Utah) will be held on Monday:

8:30am-10:30am
Fresno City Council Chambers
2600 Fresno Street, 2nd floor
Fresno, CA 90012-2944

The Oversight Field Hearing will be held:

1:00pm
700 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA

If you will be anywhere in Southern California on Monday, please make one of the meetings. If you cannot, please be sure your Congressman is on the discharge petition. The administration that wants to control your health care, your energy and your bank, now wants to control your water.

Have you ever left a light on when you walked to another room? Are you guilty of not letting your yellow…mellow? Do you let precious water run down the drain while brushing your teeth? Then you should be afraid.

A new eco-activism program empowers iphone users with the ability to snap photos of offenders and uploads them to a central database, where a community of local eco-nazi’s will mobilize to harass you until you stop watering your lawn.

EcoSnoop is a photo driven “Trouble Ticket” system, letting you identify a problem while leveraging the community to find a fix. The EcoSnoop website is a tool for awareness and understanding efficency. By using the EcoSnoop iPhone application, the user becomes an important link in the chain of many helping to discover and mediate waste (energy, pollution, etc.) in government buildings and our community.

Users locate and report on eco-offenders by submitting pictures and descriptions of blatant abuse and misuse issues.

One could only imagine how history would have been different if the Nazi’s had access to iPhones.

For questions and feedback your can contact the eco-snoop team at: snoop@ecosnoop.com

A very young caller by the name of “Anna” phoned into the Glenn Beck show this past week. She wanted to tell everyone about a series of videos that she saw while playing a children’s game sponsored by Build-A-Bear Workshop.

The videos showed cartoon polar bears and penguins in a panic due to the melting of the North Pole. Santa Clause himself delivered the message that thanks to “man-made global warming” there would be NO CHRISTMAS at all this year.

Girl Elf: Santa, it’s gone!

Papa Elf: It’s gone, It’s gone!

Santa: What’s gone?

Girl Elf: Tell ‘em, Dad!

Papa Elf: The North Peak.

Santa: A mountain? A mountain’s gone? How is that possible?

Ella the polar bear: Santa, sir, that’s why I’m here. That’s why we’re here. The ice is melting!

Santa: Yes, my dear, we know, the climate is changing. There’s bound to be a little melting.

Ella: It’s worse than that, Santa, a lot worse! At the rate it’s melting, the North Pole will be gone by Christmas!”

Santa: My, my…all of this gone by next Christmas? I don’t think so.

Ella: No sir, not next Christmas, this Christmas! The day after tomorrow!

Build-A-Bearville The Game

The new “kid friendly RPG game” is called at Build-a-Bearville where kids can play mini-games and earn money. This holiday season Build-a-Bearville debuted a new area for kids to explore, The North Pole.

Once you arrive at the North Pole via train you can meet with Santa and Mrs. Clause. However upon arrival you learn about a serious problem the polar bears are facing. The North Pole is melting. In fact in just 48 hours the entire North Pole will disappear, that is unless we all something about it.

The game pays your child’s character in coins after watching each video about a penguin who goes to the north pole to save the environment. There are 7 videos total. After finishing the 7th you complete a quest and are awarded a special prize.

Video 1

“It is a Global World Now. We are all citizens of the world.”

Video 2

Join the Boycott Build-A-Bear Workshop Facebook Group

Video 3

We cannot even let our children build stuffed bears online without being inundated with political propaganda.

Build A Bear Workshop’s corporate governance explains why this far left agenda is being forced on our kids:

Mary Lou Fiala – Director , Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc.

She is the chairman of International Council of Shopping Centers which is a Washington Lobbying Group who in the 2008 election year made charitable contributions to almost every candidate for both republican and democrats.

Mary Lou Fiala gave 10,000 dollars to ICSC in 2008

Other’s who donated to ISCS include Build-A-Bear Inc, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, as well as several Real Estate and Property Groups.

Next is Maxine Clark the Chief Executive Bear and Chairman of the Board. She is also the Presiding Director to J.C. Penney Company.

Maxine gave over $50,000 to Obama and the DNC in 2008.

From Build a Bear CEO: Maxine Clark.

Our goal with the online webisodes was to show children, through two animated polar bears and a penguin, how they could also make a difference in big and small ways. The animated story occurs in the North Pole where the 2 polar bear characters live and they want to help keep the ice from melting so Santa and the reindeers can take off safely in time to deliver all their gifts. Thanks to the giant ice cubes created by the bear and penguin team they replace the melting ice and all is well so Santa and the reindeers do not miss a beat.

We had no other intentions with the story whatsoever. we do hear you and will certainly take your opinion into consideration when developing future stories. It is interested customers like yourselves that help us do a better job.

Sincerely,

Maxine Clark

Maxine Clark
Founder and Chief Executive Bear

Build-A-Bear Workshop
1954 Innerbelt Business Center Drive
St. Louis, Mo 63114
PH: 314-423-8000 ext 5202
FX: 866-844-5229
maxine@buildabear.com

http://www.buildabear.com

Coleman Peterson.

Coleman was the Human Resources VP for Wal-Mart Inc. as well as a Chief Officer of the NAACP.

Knowing that the Build-A-Bear Workshop company has such a political agenda, I don’t think I see myself ever shopping there again. Giving money to Build-A-Bear is like donating money directly to the Obama Adminstration. Which in turn is used against us to bombard our kids with global warming and one world government.

Put your words into ACTION: Join the Boycott Build-A-Bear Workshop Facebook Group

Send a message to corporations that support lie’s and the socialist cause.

User Comments:

Michael

This company was also fined this year for child labor violations, according to their CEO, Maxine Clark. Maybe Ms. Clark should worry about not violating child labor laws rather than spending time producing political cartoons directed towards children.

TOBY

That’s right if you brainwash the children you’ll get the world. No more Build – A – Bear for my kids!!! I’m sick and tired of our kids getting brainwashed at every level. From school right on up to the corporationa nd government itself. SHAME, SHAME SHAME!!!!!

Bill Morrisonj

Every year we take the kids to Build-A-Bear, but we have now gone for the last time. I get enough indoctrination from the main stream media, and now I need to worry about what politrical messges Build-A-Bear feels a need to pass on to my gandchidren? I don’t think so. They just made sure that we will now switch to a store that sells toys that don’t come with political indoctrination. Build-A-Bear, you just lost an entire family and generation of good customers.

Join the Boycott Build-A-Bear Workshop Facebook Group

The “inconvenient truth” overhanging the UN’s Copenhagen conference is not that the climate is warming or cooling, but that humans are overpopulating the world.

A planetary law, such as China’s one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days.

The world’s other species, vegetation, resources, oceans, arable land, water supplies and atmosphere are being destroyed and pushed out of existence as a result of humanity’s soaring reproduction rate.

Ironically, China, despite its dirty coal plants, is the world’s leader in terms of fashioning policy to combat environmental degradation, thanks to its one-child-only edict.

Read more: Financial Post

More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.

That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.

Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards.

Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year.

Read more at: New York Times

It doesn’t only look beautiful, and it would make Jon Ive and Steve Jobs wet, but this naked Coca-Cola can would help save energy while reducing air and water pollution. Would it really make a difference? Let’s do some math:

I assume the consumption only increases through time, but let’s take the daily 2007 numbers from Global INForM Cases Sales database: The total number of Coca-Cola cans sold per worldwide is 67,873,309. Diet Coke and Coke Zero sold 35,387,241, while My Coke sold 103,260,550. Yes, that’s all per day.

So using only classic Coca-Cola’s daily sales figures, that means 24,773,757,785 are sold every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products. Because this doesn’t only affect the production. It also affects the recycling process, eliminating one step:

The naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its coloring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic color paint from aluminum in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture colored cans will be saved. Instead of toxic paint, manufacturers process aluminum with a pressing machine that indicates brand identity on surface.

Sounds good to me, and it even looks better if you take into account all kinds of Coke. That brings up the number to 75,380,201,500 cans. I don’t know how much paint that represents, but I’m guessing quite a few thousand tons.

Gizmodo

John Stossel takes on global warming, exposing lies and misleading data by Al Gore, and top climatologists in an exclusive 20/20 ABC news special.

Lord Smith of Finsbury believes that implementing individual carbon allowances for every person will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

It would involve people being issued with a unique number which they would hand over when purchasing products that contribute to their carbon footprint, such as fuel, airline tickets and electricity.

Like with a bank account, a statement would be sent out each month to help people keep track of what they are using.

If their “carbon account” hits zero, they would have to pay to get more credits.

Those who are frugal with their carbon usage will be able to sell their unused credits and make a profit.

Lord Smith will call for the scheme to be part of a “Green New Deal” to be introduced within 20 years when he addresses the agency’s annual conference on Monday.

An Environment Agency spokesman said only those with “extravagant lifestyles” would be affected by the carbon allowances.

read more: Telegraph.co.uk