Read on Twitter
Has anyone else noticed how "the left has captured the climate agenda" is becoming the argument du jour amongst the right?
Here's a short
looking at what this is all about 1/n
https://twitter.com/samuelhall0/status/1359443567995985920
@GeorgeMonbiot @billmckibben @DoctorVive @drvolts
Here's a short
looking at what this is all about 1/n https://twitter.com/samuelhall0/status/1359443567995985920
@GeorgeMonbiot @billmckibben @DoctorVive @drvolts
If you look you find it everywhere. This @timesredbox article by @aliciakearns and @RepJohnCurtis starts by stating "the left has historically dominated the conversation on climate change. 2/n https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-left-should-not-dominate-the-conversation-on-climate-change-whmrxwz7w
Here's @matthewlesh of the @ASI, arguing that @GretaThunberg has"scared off" free market advocates and that at best "climate politics is dominated by those who see little to no role at all for markets." 3/n https://www.cityam.com/greta-is-wrong-environmentalists-need-markets-to-protect-the-planet/
And here we have @ChrisBarnardDL founder of @BCA_eco writing in the @Telegraph that the "left has all but monopolised the debate on environmental issues." 4/n https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/17/conservation-conservative-cause-cannot-leave-environmentalism/
That there needs to be more space made for conservative views on climate action has also been championed by climate comms experts such as @climategeorge who has argued that the absence of right wing voices has left a void filled by climate denial. 5/n https://twitter.com/CamGlobCon/status/1235528235062046721
But placing the blame on the left for seizing control of the conversation and denying the right a voice seems completely counter historical, by any fair reading the right were more than happy to abandon the field and many actively promoted climate denial 6/n
In their book Merchants of Doubt, @NaomiOreskes and @ErikMConway show how the right promoted climate denial in order to preserve their ideological worldview and prevent environmental regulation. 7/n
The work of @RBrulle and many others has since outlined in detail the way in which these groups sought to delay climate action and distort public political discourse. 8/n https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-013-1018-7
So the real reason climate is seen as a left wing issue is because the right polarised it by embracing climate denial in order to delay action, and this process was supported and encouraged by fossil fuel interests. 9/n
. @NaomiAKlein says"deniers did not decide that climate change is a leftwing conspiracy by uncovering [a] socialist plot. They arrived at this analysis by [looking] at what it would take to lower global emissions...as rapidly as climate science demands"10/n https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/capitalism-vs-climate/
In 2021 the case that we cannot have 'green growth' and meet the necessary climate commitments is stronger then ever, and set out superbly by @jasonhickel and @g_kallis 11/n https://twitter.com/jasonhickel/status/1343601950793859072
So the question is then why is the right raising their voice now saying that the left have prevented them from engaging on the issue? I'd argue its so they can try to place the blame for lack of past action on climate onto the left whose message is finally getting across. 12/n
Their goal is to try to pursue what @AlexSteffen calls a strategy of "predatory delay" and block sufficient action for as long possible by advocating "sensible and pragmatic" polices over the radical ones necessary. 13/n https://link.medium.com/4BsXgtJNQdb
The message that climate communicators must get across is the scale of the changes that are necessary to tackle the climate crisis, not what action is politically acceptable to the right! 14/14
