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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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George Monbiot

Murderous heat, an endangered food supply and no net zero: this is the life the radical right wants you to have

Trees and a woman with her hair in a bun wearing a sleeveless top are silhouetted against fire and smoke
Firefighters battle wildfire near Preveli on the island of Crete, Greece, 30 July 2026. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Anadolu/Getty Images

Can’t you leftists understand? Mass death is good for you. Reject the woke love of life! Welcome civilisational collapse! Watch it all burn, then dance in the ashes! This, roughly speaking, is how the dismissal of climate action is now being justified: the argument has shifted from science denial to outright nihilism.

The new incendiary spirit is exemplified by that serial arsonist Allister Heath, editor of the Sunday Telegraph. In a column in the Daily Telegraph last week, originally titled “Britain can’t stop climate change. Scrap net zero and embrace Mediterranean life”, he argued that “climate change is real” but “the war against global warming has been lost”.

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