Boris Johnson & Climate Change. Changing his mind to suit
Boris Johnson has defended comments made about climate change by the new International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan in 2010 and 2012 noting that just like him she now saw things differently.
A Guardian report and extract from it is here:
“I don’t want to encourage you, but if you were to excavate some of my articles from 20 years ago you might find comments I made, obiter dicta, about climate change that weren’t entirely supportive of the current struggle, but the facts change and people change their minds and change their views and that’s very important too,” he said, adding: “The fact is the UK is leading the world and you should be proud of it.”
As recently as 2015, Johnson claimed “global leaders were driven by a primitive fear that the present ambient warm weather is somehow caused by humanity; and that fear – as far as I understand the science – is equally without foundation”.
He also wrote an article in 2013 suggesting the government should consider preparing for a mini-ice age caused by solar activity, drawing on a discredited theory by the climate denier Piers Corbyn –
Piers Corbyn claimed that his theory focused on sun spots was based on Marxism (it wasn’t) and it was in any case completely wrong.
Last month Boris Johnson described the UN report on the impact of climate change as ‘sobering’. It was lunchtime and that suggested perhaps that he had already been following a Churchillian regime that morning (i.e alcohol for breakfast).
At least however he managed to appear to take the matter seriously, which is rare for Johnson and also marks him out from a swathe of right-wing politicians, including some in his own party, who don’t think the matter deserves serious consideration.
Of course its unlikely Johnson will do anything beyond words.
As Sonia Purnell notes in her biography of Johnson, Just Boris, he has developed, as in other areas a method of moulding his views on climate change to what he thinks is the current mainstream.
She writes:
He was once noted for scorning the global warming agenda, with caustic rants about the cult of climate change. Since then he has flipped sides so many times that petrol-heads and eco-warriors take turns to denounce him.
As ever action from below by climate activists, trade unionists and others will be essential
Leave a Reply