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11 Feb, 4 tweets, 1 min read
It would be madness to build these roads in the midst of a climate emergency, and when businesses are at last adopting 21st Century technologies for meetings, instead of sending people all over the country.
We should be retiring roads, not building them.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/f…
These days, new roads tend to be built not for the benefit of travellers, but for the benefit of contractors.
There is an interesting, perverse logic which ensures that the very worst schemes get selected. I try to explain it here:
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Add a large helping of Tory corruption, and you have a recipe for disaster.

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More from @GeorgeMonbiot

George Monbiot Profile picture
8 Feb
Revolting. And please remember the "justification", which is the justification for mass slaughter of this kind the world over:
To protect livestock.
Why must the natural world have to give way, across so much of the planet, to cattle and sheep?
In the UK, we've wiped out our larger predators, but our wildlife is still being slaughtered, at the behest of the same industry.
Even moles are massacred, for fear that they might spoil cattle feed.
Read 6 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
7 Feb
Perhaps there's one thing most of us can agree on?
*Repeated lockdowns are a symptom of policy failure.*
To avoid them, we need:
- A professional test, trace, isolate, support system
- Widest possible vaccine coverage
- Universal mask wearing wherever transmission is likely
🧵
- Major refurbs of schools, colleges, workplaces etc, to make them C19-safe.
- For schools, this means:
a. dedicated government funding for ventilation etc
b. Nightingale classrooms and outdoor learning facilities
c. Hiring new teaching assistants and vaccinated retired teachers
- Clearly stated objectives for the current lockdown, and a set of published criteria that must be met before ending it.
- An overall pandemic strategy, publicly visible, so that it can be debated and refined.
- More funding and greater security for the NHS.
Read 6 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
5 Feb
Some astonishing and disgraceful revelations here about a man whose misleading claims on Covid-19 have formed the backbone of the "sceptic" case.
I keep seeing this pattern: people who make false claims in one field have a tendency to make false claims in others.
There also appears to be a common coincidence between downplaying the dangers of Covid-19 and holding a set of far-right beliefs.
Yeadon now claims that he "didn't write" one of these tweets, that appeared on his account. He hasn't explained who did, how it got there, or why it closely resembles a large number of other tweets, with similar claims from his account.
Read 12 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
4 Feb
Where is the government programme for an emergency refurbishment of schools + establishing Nightingale classrooms and outdoor learning facilities, to make education Covid-safe?
It's frankly unbelievable that after 3 lockdowns and 3 school holidays, it still hasn't happened.
Why hasn't the government provided funds to schools to help them install ventilation/heat exchanger systems, windows that open etc, or to set up classes in unused entertainment venues and other places?
When schools reopen, pupils will be shoved back into an unsafe environment.
What the hell does @GavinWilliamson do all day? Why hasn't this been at the top of his to-do list from day one of the pandemic? He has left schools to sort themselves out, without extra funding, while their budgets are already overstretched.
Read 4 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
3 Feb
Recently, quite a few people have told me
“I thought you were on our side”
“Turns out you’re a shill, after all”
“You’re such a let-down”
etc
So here’s an explanation of why I’ve disappointed some of you.
🧵
1. If we want a good society, we must challenge power relentlessly, in all its forms.
But this challenge *must* be grounded in evidence.
If we make claims against power that are untrue,
a. they glance off
b. we do harm
c. we lose ourselves.
2. For example, I still believe that Big Pharma is inordinately powerful and often abuses its power.
But this doesn’t mean that vaccines are useless, harmful or used to inject us with microchips.
Nor does it mean that Covid-19 is harmless, imaginary or an artefact of PCR tests.
Read 13 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
2 Feb
Perhaps the best comment yet on the parched ethics of the #DasguptaReview, which seeks to persuade us that nature is one of the "assets in our portfolios".
Incidentally, has *anyone* who's critical of the natural capital agenda yet been interviewed in the media about the Dasgupta Review, to provide, you know, an alternative perspective? If so, I haven't seen it.
The "Monoculture of Economics", to use Kate Raworth's phrase, is sustained by the Monoculture of the Media.
Read 6 tweets

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