Thread by @SteB777

1) I want to create a mini-thread here, to go through this revealing insight into Boris Johnson's thinking on the climate crisis. I think this very important, because we rarely get this type of insight. 🧵
independent.co.uk/climate-change…

2) The first think that stands out, is his warning of possible civilization collapse. Not least of all because I've been consistently saying this myself and actually using the collapse of the Roman Civilization in Britain as an example.

3) First I want to deal with what I consider the most important revelation.

"Admitting his own “road to Damascus” conversion - after a journalism career in which he scoffed at climate change - Mr Johnson said the key moment had only come after he became prime minister."

4) This is when it first clicked for him. 2 years ago. The science on anthropogenic climate change has actually been fairly certain for over 40 years.

"He said he was briefed by government scientists soon after arriving in Downing Street, in 2019."

5) I consider this the most revealing insight into a world's leaders thinking on climate ever.

'“I got them to run through it all and, if you look at the almost vertical kink upward in the temperature graph, the anthropogenic climate change, it’s very hard to dispute,” he said.'

6) What he has revealed, is he'd never really thought about it before, or made any attempt to avail himself of the basic facts, despite having been Mayor of London, and Foreign Secretary, a major journalist and Conservative leadership contender for a long time.

7) What this tells us, is it is possible to get into one of the most senior positions in government, Foreign Secretary, and yet be able to avoid being properly briefed on THE most important issue of our time.

8) This explains such a lot. It tells us that most world leaders have probably never been given a basic scientific briefing like this, and if they did, they were deliberately not thinking.

9) It is incredibly easy, if briefed by knowledgeable scientists, backed up by the facts, to leave anyone, including the most ardent "sceptic", in no doubt whatsoever.

10) However, there are some worrying things here, he seems to think it will only effect future generations.

In addition, he seems to make no connection at all with the biodiversity and general ecological crisis, which makes this crisis far more serious than most realise.

11) You see, when most people say something like they understand the crisis, realise how serious it is, you automatically assume they have read the basics and have got some grasp of the situation.

12) I came to an understanding of the ecological and sustainability crisis at a very early age, over 50 years ago. I have been thinking about it, reading and researching it, in a rather obsessive way since, did a degree in ecology etc.

13) I am just starting to realise that probably I've gone much deeper into thinking about this whole crisis in a joined up big picture way, than maybe anyone I've ever spoken to. I mean nearly 30 years ago, I had senior scientists say to me, I've never really thought about that.

14) In fact, I've never really thought about that is response I've had so many times I have utterly lost count. You see, often when I've asked these questions, made these points. I wasn't trying to demonstrate all my thinking, I expected illumination.

15) I expected to be told or pointed towards who was the leading thinker on this, what they said, pointed towards books or papers that dealt with this. Not to be told, oh I've never thought about that before.

16) On Twitter and elsewhere, I've repeatedly asked who or what organization, institute, department, what field of science, is looking at all the parts of this crisis? The climate, biodiversity, ecological, how it connects to our economies, in a joined up way.

17) If I get pointed somewhere, a quick 20 minute peruse, tells me there is huge gaps in the thinking and knowledge. That alarmingly, there is no one actually looking at this crisis we face in a joined up way.

18) It is frightening, that our prime minister, a 57 year old man, who first became an MP over 20 years ago, and whose father was writing books on the environment 50 years ago, only had a look at the evidence for the climate crisis, 2 years ago. The mind boggles.

19) To say there is a paucity of leadership in the world is incredible under statement.

Personally, the thing that really frightens me is that I seem to have thought about things, so many experts had never thought about at all.

20) When I say, I seem to have thought about things many experts don't seem to have thought about at all, does not make me any sort of expert on this. I simply know these issues and problems exist, not the answer to them. That is what is so frightening.

21) You see, when we were all hunter-gatherers, it didn't really matter if we didn't know everything, or never thought about the world we lived in. We were just another species, another animal.

22) However, when we falsely imagined we were a god like species, and started destroying large areas of the world in pursuit of "progress and development", you might have thought someone would be responsible enough to say, ought we not have a good think about what we are doing.

23) Yet this is the truly frightening thing, despite having known about this crisis for 50 years or more, we haven't even developed a field of science, an organization, examining the whole crisis in a joined up way. We're flying blind.
un.org/en/conferences…

@ClimateHuman @GretaThunberg @GeorgeMonbiot @KevinClimate @JKSteinberger

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