Thread by @WillHayCardiff

Want to read a thread about why Boris Johnson's sudden claims to want to tackle climate change are likely hot air (pun intended)?

Course you do!

Let's take a walk through our Prime Minister's long history of dalliances with climate misinformation.

[Thread]

First off, why talk about this now?

Well today the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a massive assessment of the utter shitter of a climate cul-de-sac with have driven ourselves into.

The (brief) conclusions are:

Our planet is f***ed.

We (humans) did it.

We continue to do it.

Some of the effects are now inevitable.

If we don't stop doing it, we will be well and truly screwed.

We can, if we act v fast and v decisively, still avoid the worst of it.

In response to this Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a statement.

“Sobering reading” he called it.

“It is clear that the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet."

He goes further..

“We know what must be done to limit global warming - consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature & provide climate finance for countries on the frontline.”

Strong stuff right? A leader who gets the issue and serious about action?

You wouldn't be blamed for feeling reassured.

Here is a leader who is on the case and is absolutely not just paying lip service to tackling this problem (which will involve taking on some incredibly powerful, businesses, lobbies and people).

Unfortunately the PM's record on this issue is woeful.

Let's take a look back to 2007/2008 when he was running to be Mayor of London.

In the run up to his May 2008 election as London Mayor, prominent Tory and billionaire hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze donated the following to Mr Johnson:
- £2,000 in December 2007
- £2,000 in February 2008
- £1,000 in March 2008.

Sir Michael, (who is prominent Tory party doner) is the financial backer of the climate science denial group the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Let's fast forward to December 2010 when BJ wrote this article for the Telegraph.

In it he promoted the work of well know climate change denier Piers Corbyn.

telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/man…

This included the lines:
"Piers Corbyn believes that the last three winters could be the harbinger of a mini ice age that could be upon us by 2035"

He also suggests maybe emissions aren't what is driving climate change (it unequivocally is BTW) and perhaps it is "the Sun".

Sagely Mr Johnson adds:

"Is it possible that everything we do is dwarfed by the moods of the star that gives life to the world? The Sun is incomparably vaster and more powerful than any work of man.”

In 2017 on September 27 while leading the Foreign Office, Boris Johnson launched a new thinktank to push “the moral case for open commerce” called the Institute for Free Trade (IFT).

The IFT was formerly based at 57 Tufton Street, sharing an office with the Centre for Policy Studies, which has previously cast doubt on man made climate change.

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, who gave the 2017 annual lecture at the climate science denying Global Warming Policy Foundation, is on the IFT’s “international advisory panel.”

In 2018, during a trip to the US, Johnson was the speaker at a black-tie dinner in Washington hosted by the conservative thinktank, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Johnson’s team had their “accommodation, travel and hospitality” paid for by the AEI

The AEI has a history of spreading doubt about climate change and opposing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and has received significant funding from the Koch family and ExxonMobil.

In 2019 it was revealed that First Corporate Shipping, had donated £25,000 to both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt’s Conservative Party leadership campaigns.
opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

First Coperate Shipping is co-owned by Terence Mordaunt, a director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, the advocacy arm of the climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Still think Boris Johnson is the man to tackle the greatest crisis facing humanity?

Let's look at the people he surrounds himself with..

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Leader of the Commons is on the record as suggesting that humans should not try to mitigate climate change and just adapt.

Nadhim Zahawi - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Mr Zahawi has strong links to the fossil fuel industry.

He's received over £1m from fossil fuel companies, all of it declared and legitimate. He spent much of his career working as chief strategy officer for Gulf Keystone Petroleum.

He also owns shares in Genel Energy, an Anglo-Turkish oil and gas exploration and production company.

So in conclusion:

Our government must act to stop climate change.

Our PM has history of ignoring scientific advice (shaking hands with Covid patients).

He has strong links to climate skepticism.

Our planet, and therefore us, are f***ed

If you want more information check out @DeSmogBlog. They do amazing work and were my sources for much of this.