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Who in their right mind would put a farm and solar panels on a warship to help power it?

The Royal Navy, of course, should they accept the “green” ideas of activist, not-for-profit think tank UKNEST.

Enter Project Zeus. Specifically, HMS Minos.

Minos, an acronym for Modular Integrated Naval Operated Ship, features all the modern requirements for combatting man’s alleged impact on the climate.

The proposed warship boasts of retractable solar-powered wings, deployable buoys to harness ‘tidal energy’, and a glass dome to ‘allow in sunlight for the on-board atrium.’

Innovative

In case you’re wondering, Minos isn’t without weaponry.

There’s still room for a few missiles, guns, a submersible, and a helideck.

Project Zeus, UKNEST claims, is about sustainability.

Its aim is to bring ‘naval operations into line with a climatically changed, and low carbon future.’

‘By 2050, sea levels and temperatures will have risen, and extreme weather events will be more common,’ the UKNEST brief predicted.

Citing the usual climate catastrophism rhetoric, they added, ‘climate change’ means the Royal Navy needs to change.

So, 26 people from twelve UKNEST organisations spent six months bringing three concept designs to life.

Alongside HMS Minos, their work included proposals for a sea base called HMS Urania, and HMS Ares, a space platform for farming radiation to charge ‘naval platforms’.

Though UKNEST is serious about its comical concept designs, Project Zeus does come with a disclaimer.

They ‘recognise some of their ideas may not be feasible, and they state: ‘final concepts are impressionistic.’

HMS Minos is an ‘interpretation of what the future naval force could look like,’ for any defence force attempting to synchronise combating “climate change” with combat critical systems.

Seemingly countering the inevitable mockery, UKNEST said that the goal is to ‘stimulate thought, generate conversation, and spark debate.’

Presumably, this invitation for debate doesn’t include dissenters.

Scientists such as Peter Ridd, Judith Curry, Steven Koonin, Michael Schellenberger, and Ian Plimer.

As well as a growing number of other experts who question the “consensus”, and the political weaponisation of the so-called “settled science.”

Government Initiative

UKNEST’s “our product may not resemble the real thing” caveat aside, ‘Visioneering’ is UKNEST’s response to the Ministry of Climate Change and Sustainability.

The ministry issued a three-pronged strategy in 2021, reprioritising the defence force resources to fight – as yet to be settled – cause of fluctuating climates.

Sustainability, adaptability, and mitigation headline the ‘call to action.’

Like a Monty Python skit, UK defence personnal, looking through a ‘climate lens’, may be forced to consult the climate handbook before entering combat.

As page 6 of the strategy suggests:

‘Policies and decisions will need to consistently take account of their effect on Defence’s sustainability.’

Although there is a commitment to ‘never compromise capability solely for a sustainable solution,’ the entire report puts UK defence on notice.

To paraphrase a Great Britain News witticism, for UK defence, Net Zero is more important than national security.

The GB assessment isn’t mudslinging.

In 2022, the Royal Navy boasted of aims to ‘create one of the greenest’ navies in the world.

Under a ‘Green Pennant scheme,’ ships will have to meet a ‘sustainability standard before deploying.’

An irony, when you consider the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales — two of the biggest aircraft carriers in the world — are powered by gas turbines, not Net Zero nuclear.

RUSI, one of the UK’s oldest defence analyst organisations, concurs: ‘The Royal Navy appears to have prioritised climate change at the highest level.’

Proof of this is the climate command office, known as the Navy Command Climate Change and Sustainability Group. 

Recent criticisms further add to those claims.

Free speech defenders Net Zero Watch have called on the ‘woke Royal Navy’ to ditch proposals that would ‘force Royal Navy personnel to undergo ‘climate change’ training.’

The Royal Navy is considering introducing compulsory climate change courses for all sailors, a leaked briefing paper suggests.

Green pirates have seized the Royal Navy! #CostOfNetZero

👉https://t.co/D43MOFcmKA pic.twitter.com/N2EM8WM1ty

— Net Zero Watch (@NetZeroWatch) February 14, 2024

In a statement posted on February 14, Andrew Montford, director of Net Zero Watch, said,

“It is clear that the MoD has been infiltrated by woke activists and is neglecting its real mission. This is highly dangerous. The defence of the realm must come first.”

His concerns were inadvertently propped up by Nigel Farage.

Responding to news of the push to cement woke ideology in the armed forces, Farage stated on X: ‘Our enemies are laughing at us.’

He later added a lengthy reply from retired senior military officers.

The open letter called the alignment with far-left extremist thinking, ‘the perpetration of monumental self-harming.’

‘Nothing could be better calculated to destroy the esprit de corps of our armed forces than this poisonous farrago of nonsense,’ they argued.

‘Ours is a tolerant country and this obsessive racialising of everything is both disgusting and reprehensible.

‘Among the lunacy of pushing woke ideas around the use of ‘gender neutral’ pronouns, or allowing male soldiers to wear make-up or flowing locks on parades to accentuate their feminine side.

‘We pick out the wickedness of a policy to dilute security vetting in order to boost representation of ethnic minorities. With Islamism and other extremism rampant, this is nothing short of dangerous madness.’

The twelve military officials then protested,

‘To remove Christianity from Acts of Remembrance is also a particular insult to our ancestors who fought and died to lead the world in ending slavery and twice in the last century to save our islands from conquest by extreme regimes.

‘No one should need to be reminded that this is a welcoming, inclusive, and basically Christian country. Our civic culture on 11th November is sacred, Christian, tolerant and inclusive on our terms.’

It’s worth reading.

Important open letter from senior military figures. 🚨

Dear Secretary of State,

As retired senior officers of the Crown with experience of senior command, we feel compelled to write to you with a sense of sadness, incredulity and anger having viewed astonishing evidence of…

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) February 12, 2024

They’re spot on.

To borrow from Skillet frontman John Cooper’s latest book, the proposals are weak, woke, and wimpy.

Solar-powered ships for the Royal Navy are Net Zero nonsense.