Voices from the Hive 2

As children in over a thousand towns take part in a series of coordinated Climate Strikes across the UK, the exact nature and extent of the Climate and Ecological Crisis is still largely a mystery to large swathes of the adult British population, in spite of the fact that many of their children and grandchildren are way ahead of the game on this. Last Friday’s Listen to the Science Event in Trafalgar Square, organised by Scientists for Extinction Rebellion, which also incorporated the presentation of a letter at the Department of Education into the proceedings, asking for essential facts about the Climate Crisis to be included in the National School Curriculum, demonstrated fully the ability of the Fossil Fuel led Denialist Movement to control the UK government’s agenda on this and a number of related issues.

Among the key offenders who have played a major role in ensuring that, prior to the rise of Extinction Rebellion in the closing months of 2018 and their first Great Rebellion of April of this year, almost nothing was being said about the true extent of the Climate Emergency outside of specialist publications and the quality press, is the fossil fuel multinational BP. In addition to having been listed as among the top political lobbyists spending billions in an attempt to block climate change policies across every conceivable arm of government globally, BP also manages a number of key aspects of its Denialist political agenda via its own Educational Services website; which incorporates an extensive resource library of Scientific Education materials, pitched at both Primary and Secondary Education levels in schools, which actively promote the further use and continued development of Fossil Fuels.

Although Jeremy Corbyn, the most senior member of the UK Parliament participating in last night’s Channel 4 debate, openly acknowledged during the course of the discussion that this is the last chance that we have to tackle the Global Climate Emergency, the latest European Union legislation is currently aiming for a 2050 Zero Emissions target date. One of the principal reasons for this has been the extent of the Centre Right mainstream media’s Denialist Agenda. A key factor in the general lack of awareness among the adult population at large. Today’s news of the acquisition of the ‘i’ newspaper by the owners of the ‘Daily Mail‘, a media organisation with extensive links to veteran Climate Change denialist Dominic Lawson, whose own denialist dynasty featured in last week’s newsletter, is only likely to see a further dilution of the facts for the benefit of the Fossil Fuel lobbyists.

The acquisition of yet more news and media channels both nationally and internationally by individuals and organisations linked to the Fossil Fuel Industry is an increasingly worrying and under reported phenomena, that those in the business of promoting Climate Emergency Awareness need to familiarise themselves with as much as possible in order to make any substantial inroads into the mainstream of public consciousness. For example, earlier in the year it was widely under reported that the US media corporation Gannett had been bought out by the fossil fuel baron Wes Edens. According to his Wikipedia page, ‘Wesley Robert Edens is an American businessman and private equity investor. He is a co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and founder of New Fortress Energy’, in addition to having previously had a close involvement with international investment management firm BlackRock. Among Gannet’s UK holdings is the Newsquest group of news titles which holds a controlling stake in much of the local newsprint in many areas where the effects of Climate Change are already a grim reality. This considered, the fact that comparatively little correlation is ever made between the bare facts of the story line, when matters such as the recent flooding in South Yorkshire are reported by the local press, and the current Climate Crisis should therefore not be overlooked by those seeking to raise awareness of the current danger posed by the on going Climate Crisis to all life on Earth.

In last week’s newsletter I focused briefly on a recent event organised by certain Right Wing elements within the Italian political sphere at which a number of high profile Climate Change Deniers, linked to the Fossil Fuel Industry, were given a platform at the Italian Senate. These are known to have included several key figures from Silvio Berlusconi‘s ‘Forza Italia‘ Party; which has close ties to Central Energy Italian Gas Holding or Central Energy Italian Inc. This company in turn has cultivated extensive links with the Russian multinational Gazprom. A fact exposed by Roman Kupchinsky in his ground breaking investigative report into ‘Berlusconi, Centrex, Hexagon 1 and 2 and Gazprom’ published by the ‘Eurasia Daily Monitor‘ back in 2008. Perhaps this explains the current lack of action by those elements within the European Union who wish defer the implementation of an EU wide commitment to Net Zero Emissions until 2050.

More on this and other stories in a future newsletter.