The Day Climate Change Denial Died

Before the brutal reality of the last two days hit the UK - and, most tellingly for the London media class, hit that part of the UK beyond which they find it difficult to see - it was so very different. Hot weather? What was one of those? We should not be mere cowering snowflakes (an unfortunate turn of phrase, given the heat). It was just summer, and we had one of those every year. It couldn’t be worse than 1976. It was alarmist and unnecessary.

Typical of this strain of journalism, and yes, he really does put a strain on journalism, was a piece in the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine by tedious contrarian Brendan O’Forehead, who claimed it was being blamed on “rich people. It’s because of those wealthy elites with all their gas-guzzling vehicles and reckless holidaymaking”. But he knew better. “This infantile claim really is being made, and by supposedly serious politicians”.

Yeah, it was infantile! Science is infantile! Cos someone from the planet Spiked, so called because it should have been long ago, says so. And there was more. “Is anyone else tiring of all this green hysteria over the heatwave? There is something medieval about it. There is something creepily pre-modern in the idea that sinful mankind has brought heat and fire and floods upon himself with his wicked, hubristic behaviour”. Wrong. It’s called reality.

Even as Monday brought temperatures in the high 30s, the Daily Mail was ridiculing the idea that climate change had finally and irreversibly hit home. Placed next to Tuesday morning’s editorial, someone called Stephen Robinson had penned “Why can't the Met Office just tell us the weather, instead of spreading alarm and scolding us with doom-laden lectures?”

This was all the fault of cancel culture! “Anyone who says anything that flies in the face of this doom-laden agenda is immediately shouted down … And our old friend the BBC could be relied upon to back them to the hilt”. The Met Office and any other body marked Public was severely criticised.

“It doesn’t matter whether any of these bodies has the jurisdiction or expertise to opine on these matters. They are tolerated and bankrolled for as long as they parrot the predicable woke line”. Another one who does not understand what Woke means. But he did know that the experts were wrong, because he had lived in Washington, DC, and also South Africa. So he was right.

And then, yesterday, right on the doorstep of the right-leaning press and London-based climate change denialists, reality arrived. London was literally burning: the wildfires, previously of southern Europe, had arrived.

Graeme Demianyk of the HuffPost observed “110 fire engines sent to blazes in Upminster, Wennington, Pinner, Southgate, Croydon, Dagenham, Hendon, Croydon and Eltham as major incident declared”. It was no longer the preserve of Spain and Portugal: in Wennington, east of London, a wildfire literally consumed a row of terraced housing, gutting the lot in short order.

Paul Brand of ITV noted “Sadiq Khan confirms that yesterday was the busiest day for London’s firefighters since World War II. 2600 calls versus 500 on a normal busy day”. And the New York Times reminded us “Many areas of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Britain were 20 degrees hotter on Tuesday than historical averages on the same date during the late 20th century”. The resulting press volte face was something to see.

This demonstration of climate change in action was a more effective means of persuasion than all the reminders, all the data, all the warnings. The tragedy is that it has taken this long to get the London media class to see sense and, perhaps, cast adrift the clown car of climate change denial to which too many of their number had been so keen to hitch their wagons.

Also, whisper it quietly, our free and fearless press has now realised that climate change is more important than a mere leadership contest. It may already be too late, but at least the penny has now dropped, as hacks ponder the rows of burning houses, and realise it could be theirs next.

It was the day climate change denial finally died. Just rejoice at that news.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton