Julia Hartley Dooda Climate Fail

Some pundits find it hard to understand what climate change means. Others still find it hard to understand, but don’t care: for them, flying long haul and sneering at anyone showing concern for the environment go hand in hand. And it should surprise no-one that the latter category includes self-promoting TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley Brewer.

Cheer up Julia, your tax bill's arrived

Ms Hartley Dooda wants everyone to know that when she goes on holiday, it costs lots of money because she goes to places a long way away. And she has lots of money to throw at long haul travel because she’s just a very, very important person. She isn’t worried about climate change. Because, for her, it’s not going to happen.

Greta Thunberg

So it was that her followers were regaled with “I bloody love elephants… World Elephant Day. A few more of my favourite safari pix … This is how I spent last New Year’s Eve”. I suspect the elephants could get along fine without Ms Hartley Dooda and her wilful mission to ignore those threats to their environment.

You'll need more than a bucket. Try a dumper truck (ho ho ho)

That she didn’t give a fig for that environment was shown when she came to talk about someone who really is concerned about it. Yes, back in the news with her carbon-neutral journey to the USA is campaigner and activist Greta Thunberg. “Yawn. Greta Thunberg's zero carbon journey to climate change conference” she sneered. But Ms Thunberg wants a better world, yes? “She’s not being bullied … She’s being exploited. It’s repulsive”.

The idea that Ms Thunberg is being exploited is guff. If she did not want to do what she is now doing, she wouldn’t do it. Such independence of will cannot be exploited. That thought is not allowed to enter Ms Hartley Dooda’s world, and instead she Retweets the likes of Darren Grimes. “I watched this interview, I found it seriously creepy. We should be educating our children about the climate, not terrifying them about some apocalypse. She is clearly a vulnerable, scared child that is being exploited - I find it incredibly unnerving”.

It is precisely because Ms Thunberg had been educated about the climate that she campaigns as she does. But gaslighting Ms Thunberg and anyone who agrees with her is much more agreeable to the right-wing chattering classes. As is trashing any environmental concern, so Ms Hartley Dooda has also Retweeted Frank Furedi.

“Maybe university chiefs could devote a bit of their energy to improving the quality of higher education instead of imposing their prejudice on their academic community” sneers the Spiked alumnus, not letting the world know that the ban on beef at Goldsmith’s College, on which Furedi is attempting to pass adverse comment, enjoys widespread support from undergraduates too. It is as if the right refuse to admit it’s happening.

Ms Hartley Dooda certainly has no problem giving that impression. What was she doing about the climate? “Me? Mostly not worrying about spurious claims of an imminent catastrophe and enjoying the sunshine. You?” And no doubt planning her next very expensive, very exclusive, long haul homage to conspicuous consumption.

For an increasing number of ordinary people, climate change is happening right now. But for Julia Hartley Dooda and her fellow right-wingers, it’s someone else’s problem.

She’ll have a terrible shock when she funds out there’s only one Planet Earth.

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