Consistent denial of climate change in The Light

Climate change denial has featured in almost every single issue of The Light. Other than the pandemic, it is probably the most common theme. This article explore this in depth – see our leaflet on the topic for a short summary.

The Light does not discuss the existing harms of extreme temperatures, droughts, floods, or sea-level rise. Instead, it repeatedly asserts that climate change is a “hoax”, a “con”, a “scam”. It argues that claims that there is a climate emergency are part of a conspiracy by a shadowy global elite to extend their control over society and individuals. There is a consistent trashing of climate and environmental activists, and of even the limited and inadequate efforts by governments to limit climate degradation. There is even more scorn for any attempts at international coordination of such efforts, which are fitted into the overall narrative of a secret plan to impose a “world government”.

This might come as a surprise to those who think that The Light is somehow on the side of the “natural world” and against technological civilization, or those in Stroud who remember that The Beacon, the now-closed shop that became the centre of anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown activity in our town, was once the meeting place for Extinction Rebellion activists. Some of the people handing out The Light have in the past campaigned in favour of climate action. It might even surprise some of the people who hand out The Light – quite a few of them don’t seem to know what’s in the paper. It’s notable that The Light’s opposition to “big corporations” doesn’t extend to the fossil fuel industry. And it doesn’t have a bad word to say about the Koch brothers, the billionaires who fund climate change denial and misinformation… and who also fund misinformation about the pandemic. 

We think this is important. The basic science around the “greenhouse effect” and the role of atmosphere Carbon Dioxide and fossil fuels began to be understood as early as Svante Arrhenius’ work in 1896. The “greenhouse effect” is the way in which heat and energy are trapped close to Earth’s surface by particular “greenhouse” gases. The presence of these gases can be thought of as a blanket wrapped around Earth, keeping some heat and energy in – which would otherwise be radiated out into space. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and water vapour. Emissions and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane have both risen dramatically during the industrial/capitalist era – leading to heating of the planet. It has been over 30 years since physicist James Hansen told a U.S. Senate committee that “global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship to the greenhouse effect.” A 2021 review of 88,125 studies published since 2012 “conclude[s] with high statistical confidence that the scientific consensus on human-caused contemporary climate change—expressed as a proportion of the total publications—exceeds 99% in the peer reviewed scientific literature”.

And we know that the impacts of climate breakdown, now and in the future, are uneven. While everyone, everywhere will be affected, the effects are most significant in particular geographic areas, and hit harder where people are less able to adapt. Recent examples include flooding in Bangladesh and Assam in India, severe flooding in Sudan, drought in Chile and in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, landslides in Brazil, wildfire in Argentine wetlands and flooding in the Amazon. Action is urgently needed – causing delay by spreading misinformation or undermining interest in developing solutions is harmful, indeed – arguably – complicity in genocide. This is an issue of justice as well as an environmental issue. The communities on the frontline of fighting climate change are often the same who have resisted centuries of colonialism, chattel enslavement and white supremacy, and who continue to fight against the ecocide of fossil fuel companies.

This is by no means “just one article”. Below we’ve made a list of the climate change disinformation that has appeared in the paper. If you want further information, the issue numbers and page numbers will help you find it. Before the list, a brief comment on rebuttal. We have not included an attempt to rebut the following claims here – we believe the overwhelming majority of people accept that global heating is occurring, is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, other industrial processes, deforestation and other changes to land use; and that a response by human societies is both necessary and urgent. The purpose of our list is only to make clear the depth of The Light’s commitment to disinformation on climate change. For those who may have been swayed by arguments in The Light, or are curious, we recommend the skepticalscience.com website, which debunks climate misinformation by presenting peer-reviewed science and explaining the techniques of science denial in accessible language. Examples include responses to the common arguments that the “Climate’s changed before” “There is no consensus” (both arguments that distributors of The Light locally have made when we have raised this issue with them), “It’s not bad”, or that “Models are unreliable”. Also worth reading for context are a recent article by Italian climate journalist Stella Levantesi for the desmog.com website, which discusses the propaganda strategies of the fossil fuel industry and its allies and their efforts to delay and obstruct climate action. That theme is explored at greater length, with reference to previous examples such as the efforts of tobacco companies to deny well-established scientific knowledge, in the book and film ‘Merchants of Doubt’.

32 examples of disinformation on climate change / climate denial in The Light from their 23 issues to date (July 2022):                                   

• Issue 3, page 10: Chart showing “fake” climate change as part of a web of deception
• Issue 4, page 8: Interview with anti-vaxxer “doctor” Vernon Coleman refers to “the climate change scam”. 
• Issue 5, page 4: Far right former academic Niall McCrae writes in defence of “climate sceptic” Piers Corbyn
• Issue 7, page 7: Points out that critic of anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists Dr Emily Grossman is a climate activist
• Issue 8, page 6: Full page article headed “Climate Change Fraud” by long-time climate change denier Tom Tamarkin. 
• Issue 9, page 4: Article by far right former academic Niall McCrae  and leader of far right political party Robin Tilbrook suggesting police favour climate change protesters compared to the way they treat “patriots and freedom marchers”
• Issue 10, page 16: Anti-vaxxer “doctor” Vernon Coleman writes of “the global warming pseudoscience –the hoax behind the covid hoax”
• Issue 11, page 3: Full page article headed “‘Climate Emergency’ driven by faulty models and fake news ” says “the idea of a ‘Climate Emergency’ is a deception”
• Issue 12, page 14: Attack on renewable energy by “Tyler Durden”, the fictional-character pseudonym of a climate change denial blogger
• Issue 13, page 16: Article claiming that US wildfires are not driven by climate change, by H Sterling Burnett, a staffer at the right-wing climate change denial promoting think-tank The Heartland Institute…known for its persistent questioning of climate science, for its promotion of ‘experts’ who have done little, if any, peer-reviewed climate research
• Issue 13, page 18: Anti-vaxxer “doctor” Vernon Coleman writes of “the non-existent problem of climate change”
• Issue 13, page 24: Ad for Vernon Coleman’s book about “the covid and climate change frauds”
• Issue 14, pages 6-7: Double page spread questioning the science of climate change by Ian Phillips (Chief Executive, Oil & Gas Innovation Centre)
• Issue 15, page 15: Article by fundamentalist Christian “Heart Publications” references discredited 2007 Channel Four documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle; Heart Publications promotes climate change denial on its website.
• Issue 15, page 18: Full page article by “doctor” Vernon Coleman headed “Global warming lies, deceit and hypocrisy”, says “The covid-19 fraud was bad but it is nothing compared to the global warming fraud which is now well underway”
• Issue 16, page 2: Fascist leader Anne-Marie Waters writes “this time the fear will be created by the ‘climate change crisis’. It is yet another lie.”
• Issue 16, page 10: Connects Bill Gates conspiracy theory with climate change.
• Issue 16, page 15: Link promoting the website of antisemite Sandi Adams and her writing on “”The Green New Deal”, “Sustainable Development”, the “climate change” racket”.
• Issue 17, page 12: “Both covid and the climate change rhetoric use pseudo-scientific claims to appear scientific because it actually does not matter what is real or fake to all those on board.”
• Issue 18, page 1: Editor Darren Nesbit writes: “You could, for example, create a whole ‘climate crisis’ scenario in which the Earth is dying due to certain types of behaviour, and through your world organisations, multinational corporations, owned and operated national governments and media,badger people into believing living an advanced, industrialised life is a terrible thing and we should all go back to poverty.”
• Issue 18, page 3: Article by “Mark Moneycircus” locates concern about climate change in the context of The Great Reset, part of The Light’s uber-conspiracy
• Issue 18, page 13: Article criticising the Archbishop of Canterbury for supporting vaccination refers to his calls for action on climate change as “bizarre”
• Issue 18, page 20: “Doctor” Vernon Coleman says that the covid hoax was invented because the “climate change…myth” wasn’t working fast enough
• Issue 19, page 22: Vernon Coleman says “The climate change hoax that was planned back in the 1960s is the really big threat we are facing. Covid-19 was the warm up act for the big one – the global warming fraud.”
• Issue 20, page 22: Vernon Coleman says “Why does the BBC now ban any honest, open discussion about vaccines or climate change, when the science proves beyond doubt that the covid jabs are unsafe and ineffective and that climate change doesn’t exist?”
• Issue 21, page 4: Article by crank scientist J Marvin Hendon saying that IPCC’s failure to investigate “chemtrails” calls into question its findings and in its moral authority. 
• Issue 21, page 7: Article in support of climate change denier Piers Corbyn, which refers to XR and Just Stop Oil as “controlled opposition groups” that are part of a strategy by the government to “sour public opinion and ripen them up to support more draconian laws”. 
• Issue 21, page 12: Article about the covid and climate deceptions which says “covid-19 and man=made climate change are psy-ops”
• Issue 21, page 18: Niall McCrae says “Climate crisis actors will stop at nothing to make life hard and disorderly.”
• Issue 21, page 19: Editor Darren Smith refers to climate change as “a vague and unproven ideology”
• Issue 22, frontpage: Editor Darren smith says “a fake climate crisis means we have to source the most expensive ways of generating power” under the headline “Are we all being brainwashed?”
• Issue 23, page 6: In an article advertised in a banner on the front page as “exposing the man-made climate change fraud”, Daniel Thompson-Mills describes climate change as a “massive fraud” and “diversion” – claims “the notion of man-made climate change… is not actually supported by the data and evidence”. The article presents no evidence, instead referring only to the long-discredited “climategate” email controversy – into which eight committees have investigated and found no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct.

Our leaflet summarising the article above:

Below is an image showing the headline from one example of the content listed above.