Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

For 20 years, the billionaire press told us "we can easily adapt to a warmer world".
Try telling that to people in Germany, Belgium and the western seaboard of North America.
And this is just one degree of heating.

The media did this, as surely as the fossil fuel companies.

Let's not forget those who told us there was little to worry about. People with massive media platforms, who helped push us towards catastrophe.
Matt Ridley
Bjorn Lomborg
Nigel Lawson
Christopher Booker
David Rose
Peter Hitchens ....
The roll of dishonour is long and grim

And, of course, their editors and proprietors.
And the so-called thinktanks shilling for the fossil fuel companies.
Doubtless they all believed they were being ever so clever. But if we recall their names at all, we'll remember them as traitors to humanity.

But let's also remember the climate heroes: the people who risked imprisonment and, in some cases, death in trying to defend our life support systems.
Berta Caceres, Ken Saro-Wiwa and the many other murdered heroes.
The Keystone protesters
XR, Fridays for Future and many others

There's no doubt about how this will be seen.
On one side, the quislings and collaborators in global catastrophe, sniggering in their plush offices.
On the other, the resistance, bravely fighting richer and more powerful forces.
The villainy and the courage will both endure.

What's interesting about some of these #ClimateQuislings is their role as serial human wrecking balls. For example, David Rose played a major part in fomenting the Iraq War:
monbiot.com/2010/12/08/imp…

Matt Ridley, as Chair of Northern Rock, helped trigger the first run on a British bank in 150 years, which fired the starting gun for the global financial crisis.
monbiot.com/2010/06/01/the…

Nigel Lawson was the George Osborne of his generation, devastating public services and inflicting massive, unnecessary pain on the poor.
Christopher Booker ran a long and mendacious campaign claiming that asbestos was harmless.
And Peter Hitchens, well .... where to begin?🤦

This is their legacy. They are the Guilty Men of the 21st Century. They'll seek to deny it, as they deny so much else. Already this morning, Peter Hitchens is trying to justify himself. But the record stands and will not be erased.

Unfortunately, it is also our bequest. We must now suffer the effects, while continuing to fight the deniers, delayers and downplayers who - even today - seek to impede effective action.

But to help this fight, let them be warned:

Memories, in this age of archives, are long.