Last night saw the first ever election ‘climate debate’, the result of a year of climate chaos and determined organising by activists including the youth strikers. It comes amidst what several polls have determined is the UK’s first ‘climate election’.
The aftermath of the debate was, of course, taken up by the Tories’ attempts to distract from their absence. Channel 4 went one better than the traditional empty chair treatment for Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, replacing them with melting ice sculptures at each end of the panel, neatly encapsulating their indifference to the climate crisis.
For a decade the Tories have slashed support for renewables while backing fossil fuels to the hilt at home and abroad, from introducing fracking to exporting fossil fuels. Boris Johnson is perfectly content with a status quo which sacrifices working class communities here and across the world to the ravages of climate catastrophe, from air pollution or flooding, so long as it enriches him and his Big Polluter friends. Jeremy Corbyn crystallised the seismic choice facing us when he said the best thing for our planet is to get Boris Johnson out of No 10.
