The problem with being a well-known climate sceptic is that whenever there’s a heatwave, you get buttonholed by eco-zealots who think it ‘proves’ they’re right and you’re wrong. The first person to confront me during the current sunny spell was a Guardian journalist at a right-wing conference, which the newspaper had clearly identified as a hotbed of ‘denialism’. It didn’t help that the air conditioning wasn’t working and it was approaching 40°C in the main auditorium.
‘I see you’re sweating profusely,’ he began, shoving a microphone in my face. ‘Still think climate change is a hoax?’ I had to patiently explain that few people on my side of this debate deny that climate change is real. We don’t even maintain that man-made carbon emissions aren’t a contributory factor – not many of us, anyway. The disagreement is about how much of the 1.5°C rise in average global temperatures since the 1850-1900 period is due to these emissions and how much to other factors, such as solar variability, natural ocean cycles and land-use changes.
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Brendan O’Neill
Nigel Farage isn’t the one behaving badly in Clacton
