We need to talk about climate change as class war
TetleysTLDR: The summary
Britain’s far right, led by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Ltd and echoed by the Tories, are deliberately sabotaging climate action. They peddle denial, mock net zero, and pose as defenders of 'ordinary people' while protecting fossil fuel billionaires. Reform UK Ltd pushes outright vandalism: scrapping net zero, expanding oil and gas while the Tories play cynical politics, slowing green reforms to chase votes. Labour, instead of leading, has watered down its pledges and triangulated with the denialists, making them complicit through cowardice. This is part of a global far-right script: deny science, blame elites, scapegoat migrants, and defend fossil capital. Climate denial isn’t ignorance, it’s class war: the rich will survive, the working class will drown, burn, or starve. The science is unequivocal, from rising temperatures and sea levels to melting ice sheets and extreme weather and denial has no factual basis. Instead, it functions as fascist politics: protecting the wealthy, undermining truth, and stoking fear.In short: Farage, Badenoch, and their Labour enablers aren’t 'realists', they’re climate saboteurs, selling out humanity’s future for profit, ideology, and cheap headlines.
TetleysTLDR: The article
Climate denial in Britain: the far-rights suicide note for the planet.
Britain is on fire, not just literally, as summers scorch fields and melt tarmac, but politically. While the science screams urgency, the far right in this country has chosen denial, delay, and outright sabotage. They are not confused. They are not misinformed. They are selling out the planet for profit, ideology, and cheap votes. Climate change should be the defining crisis of our age. The science is beyond dispute. The ice is melting, seas are rising, forests are burning, and ecosystems are collapsing in real time. Yet, in the face of overwhelming evidence, the far right continues to peddle denial, obfuscation, and conspiracy.
This is not ignorance. It is a deliberate political project, rooted in greed, ideology, and the authoritarian impulse to preserve power at any cost. Let’s start with the obvious. The far right is welded to fossil capital. In the United States, the Koch brothers bankrolled an entire ecosystem of ‘think tanks’ and pseudo-scientists dedicated to undermining climate science. Donald Trump didn’t just call climate change a Chinese hoax’, he gutted environmental protections, pulled out of the Paris Agreement, and handed the keys of government to oil lobbyists.
Farage and Reform UK: Snake oil for the end times
Nigel Farage, Britain’s perennial pub bore turned Trump mini-me, has made climate denial a central plank of Reform UK Ltd. He sneers at ‘eco-zealots’ smirks about net zero and whips up anger over heat pumps and low-traffic neighbourhoods. His party’s climate policy is nothing more than fossil-fuel apologism dressed up as common sense. So, Farage has postured as the ‘man of the people’ while pocketing money from Arron Banks and cosying up to the fossil lobby. He panders to homeowners angry about heat pumps while letting oil companies off the hook.
The Tory Party: Green promises, brown hands
If Reform are the arsonists, the Tories are the fire wardens siphoning petrol. Rishi Sunak’s government ditched plans for tighter efficiency standards, slowed the phase-out of petrol cars, and handed out new oil and gas licences like confetti. This wasn’t about policy detail; it was an ideological gamble. Sunak and his allies gambled that stoking resentment against ‘green burdens’ would win votes, even as wildfires and floods battered communities across the UK. This wasn’t just him, go back to 2011 and David Cameron famously ‘ditched that green shit’. This is classic Toryism: short-term electoral cynicism, long-term ruin. Thatcher’s heirs love to remind us she was one of the first leaders to warn of climate change in 1989. Today, her party has been hijacked by a cabal of fossil-funded free-marketeers and Tufton Street ‘think tanks’ who churn out denialist drivel while cashing donations from oil interests.
Labour’s cowardice: green promises turn grey
And where is Labour in all this? Keir Starmer made a grand pledge of £28 billion a year in green investment, then shredded it the moment the tabloids barked. Now Labour’s climate platform is an uninspired halfway house, terrified of looking too radical. Wes Streeting and Rachel Reeves talk about pragmatism and fiscal responsibility, but what they mean is capitulation to the same fossil-funded hysteria peddled by the right. Starmer should be nailing Farage to the wall, exposing Tory donors, and making the case that climate action is jobs, security, and survival. Instead, he mumbles about realistic timelines” ‘while refusing to confront the denialists head-on. Labour may not be peddling outright denial but by triangulating with it, they legitimise it. In the fight for the planet, cowardice is complicity.
The role of the British far right in the global script
What’s happening in Britain is not unique. It’s part of the same far-right script we see in the US, Italy, and France: Deny the science (or pretend to be sceptical’). Blame elites and frame climate policy as a war on ordinary people. Protect fossil capital while talking tough about sovereignty. Exploit climate migration to ramp up racist fearmongering. Farage, Reform UK Ltd, and their Tory fellow-travellers are importing the Trump playbook wholesale. It is not British patriotism. It is American-style climate fascism, and it is as dangerous here as anywhere.
So, he mirrors the same story that is playing out across Europe. Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France: all railing against ‘green tyranny’ while their cronies cash cheques from polluters. Reform UK Ltd wants to scrap net zero targets, expand North Sea oil and gas, and roll back green regulations: a programme written by and for the energy lobby. Farage presents it as a revolt of ordinary people, but in truth it’s a love letter to BP and Shell. It is climate vandalism masquerading as populism.
Nigel Farage: Climate denier
Climate Change
Strip it down and climate denial in Britain is class war. The rich will survive the floods in their high-ground mansions. They’ll crank up the air-conditioning when the heatwaves hit. It’s the working class who will see their homes washed away, their jobs destroyed, their food prices soar. When Farage, Badenoch, and their Tufton Street cronies rail against net zero, they are not defending the people of Sunderland or Stoke. They are defending the billionaires who bankroll them.
Climate denial is just another tool of exploitation, another scam to keep ordinary people docile while the rich burn the world for profit. Here’s a list of 12 clear, evidence-based reasons why climate change deniers are wrong, with citations to authoritative sources:
1. Global Temperatures Are Rising The Earth’s average surface temperature has increase by about 1.2°C since the late 19th century, with most warming occurring since the 1970s.
NASA, Global Climate Change: Evidence (2024): https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence
2. Human Activity Is the Primary Driver Multiple studies show that greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes are the dominant cause of observed warming.
IPCC, AR6 Synthesis Report (2023): https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/
3. The Ocean Is Warming Over 90% of excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans. Ocean heat content has increased dramatically in the last 40 years.
Cheng et al. (2019), Science Advances: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav7619
4. Glaciers and Ice Sheets Are Shrinking Satellite data shows ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is accelerating, contributing to sea level rise.
NASA, Global Ice Loss: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/ice-sheets/
5. Sea Levels Are Rising Global sea levels have risen about 20 cm since 1900, with the rate nearly doubling since 1993 due to melting ice and thermal expansion of seawater.
IPCC, AR6 WG1 Report (2021): https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
6. Extreme Weather Is Increasing Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of heatwaves, heavy rainfall, wildfires, and tropical cyclones.
World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), State of the Global Climate 2023: https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release
7. Carbon Dioxide Levels Are at a 3-Million-Year High Current atmospheric CO₂ levels (~420 ppm) are the highest in at least 3 million years, far beyond natural variability.
NOAA, Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (2024): https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/
8. Scientific Consensus Is Overwhelming A meta-analysis of over 88,000 climate-related studies found 99% consensus that human-caused climate change is real.
Lynas, Houlton & Perry (2021), Environmental Research Letters: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2966
9. Natural Factors Cannot Explain Current Warming Solar activity, volcanic eruptions, and natural climate cycles cannot account for the observed rapid warming. Only models including human activity match observed trends.
IPCC, AR6 WG1 Report (2021): https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
10. Climate Impacts Are Already Observable From disappearing coral reefs to agricultural disruption, ecosystems and societies are already experiencing damage caused by climate change.
IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/
11. The Atlantic Ocean Circulation (AMOC) Is Weakening The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which drives the Gulf Stream and regulates climate in Europe, Africa, and the Americas is at its weakest in at least 1,000 years. Human-caused warming and Greenland ice melt are disrupting this critical ocean conveyor belt. If it collapses, it could trigger catastrophic shifts in weather patterns, monsoons, and sea levels.
Caesar, Rahmstorf et al. (2018), Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0006-5 IPCC, AR6 WG1 Report (2021): https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
12. Runaway Ice Melt from Greenland and West Antarctica Could Cause Catastrophic Sea-Level Rise If Greenland’s ice sheet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) undergo runaway melt, the consequences would be catastrophic:
Greenland: Complete melt would raise global sea levels by about 7 metres. West Antarctic Ice Sheet: If destabilised, it could add another 3–5 metres to sea levels. https://sealevel.nasa.gov/news/178/greenlands-rapid-melt-will-mean-more-flooding?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://www.germanwatch.org/en/blog/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-tipping-point-risk-millions-coastal-regions?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/15/121/2019/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Combined, that’s up to 10–12 metres of sea-level rise, enough to drown most coastal cities, displace hundreds of millions of people, and redraw global coastlines permanently.
This isn’t a far-off sci-fi scenario, parts of Greenland and the WAIS are already destabilising. Ice-cliff collapse and warm ocean undercutting in Antarctica are key tipping points scientists warn could trigger “unstoppable” melt.
IPCC, AR6 WG1 Report (2021): https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/
DeConto et al. (2021), Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03427-0
NASA, Vital Signs: Ice Sheets: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/ice-sheets/
Taken together, these 12 points make it impossible to argue that climate change is not real, human caused and dangerous. Climate change denial is not based on evidence. Every major scientific body worldwise agrees that the planet is warming human activity is driving it and the consequences are already unfolding.
The far right thrives on nationalism, but climate change is a borderless problem. CO₂ does not respect flags. Heatwaves, floods, and wildfires don’t stop at customs.
The only answer is international cooperation, treaties, and solidarity concepts the far right loathes. So they deny. They paint climate action as a surrender of sovereignty, a UN-led conspiracy, or an EU ‘green diktat’. This plays beautifully into their wider narrative of ‘us vs. them’. Climate denial becomes just another plank of xenophobia. Climate denial is also culture war gold. Far-right politicians don’t present it as science, they present it as an attack on ‘ordinary people’. They bleat about ‘eco-zealots’ gluing themselves to roads, or mock Greta Thunberg as a puppet of elites. They stoke fears that the left will take away your car, your Sunday roast, your gas boiler. In truth, they’re not defending “ordinary people.” They’re defending Shell, Exxon, BP. But it’s easier to whip up resentment against ‘woke greens’ than admit they’re in the pocket of billionaires.
Climate denial as Fascism
Put all this together and climate denial is not a quirk or a mistake. It is fascist politics in its purest form: Protecting the wealthy at the expense of the many. Scapegoating outsiders for crises they created. Undermining truth, expertise, and democracy. Mobilising fear and resentment to consolidate authoritarian power. The far right deny climate change because to accept it would expose their entire project as bankrupt. Admitting the truth means admitting that solidarity, regulation, and redistribution are necessary — and those are anathema to their rotten ideology. So they lie, and in lying, they doom us all. The glaciers don’t care about Nigel Farage’s smirk, Trump’s bluster, or Meloni’s slogans. The seas will rise regardless. But history will remember that when humanity needed action, the far right chose denial — and proved themselves not just wrong, but complicit in the greatest crime of all: the wilful sabotage of our planet’s future.
Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, Greta Thunberg: All vilified by the press but on the right side of history
If Greenland tips into runaway melt, if the West Antarctic ice shelf collapses, if the AMOC breaks down, the seas won’t stop to ask whether you voted Labour, Tory, or Reform. London, Hull, Cardiff, Glasgow: all will be battered by the waves. Denial isn’t just stupid: it’s suicidal.
So climate denial isn’t just stupidity, it follows the fascist playbook line by line. Fascism has always been about three things:
- Anti-intellectualism – sneering at experts, mocking science, dismissing truth as ‘elite conspiracy’.
- Scapegoating – blaming outsiders, migrants, or protesters instead of the corporations driving the crisis.
- Collusion with capital – serving the richest and most powerful while pretending to defend ‘ordinary people’.
Farage, Badenoch, and their Tufton Street cronies tick every box. They laugh at climate scientists, brand Greta Thunberg a puppet, rail against refugees from climate disasters, and bend over backwards for BP and Shell. This is not new politics it is the old poison of fascism in a green wrapper.
By denying climate change, the far right isn’t trying to ‘debate the science’. They are trying to shut it down. Fascism thrives on crushing inconvenient truths, destroying accountability, and centralising power in the hands of a few. Climate denial is the perfect tool: it delegitimises expertise, ridicules dissent, and allows them to weaponise fear against migrants, protesters, and anyone demanding justice.
Just like the Nazis wrapped themselves in ‘blood and soil’ rhetoric while ravaging the land for war, today’s far right wraps itself in Union Jacks while handing Britain’s future to the fossil lobby. Their denial is not patriotic, it is treason against the planet.
Call it what it is: climate denial is fascism for the 21st century. It protects the wealthy, scapegoats the weak, trashes truth, and sacrifices the future for power. The ice sheets don’t care about Farage’s smirk or Badenoch’s soundbites – but history should record them as saboteurs who sold out humanity in the service of a fascist project.
And yet the far right, with Farage smirking on GB News and Badenoch wanting to licence new oil fields, want us to believe that cutting emissions is some kind of luxury we can’t afford. The truth is the opposite, we can’t afford not to act.
Climate protesters outside 55 Tufton Street. Home of heavily funded right wing Think Tanks that push climate change denial
So stop pretending this is a debate. Climate denial in Britain is not just ignorance, is not just healthy scepticism: it is far-right authoritarian politics in the service of fossil capital. It is greed, cowardice, and cynicism wrapped in a Union Jack.
Farage, the Tories, and their Labour enablers are not ‘climate realists’. They are climate saboteurs. And history may not last long enough to remember them not as defenders of the people, but as the gang of liars who sold out the planet for a quick buck and a cheap headline.
Back in 1980, as an impressionable 13 year old I watched awestruck as Carl Sagan delivered his series on BBC2 at 9pm. Carl was bank on the button, he famously said:
“We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can continue to be self-destructive and short-sighted, or we can realise that we have a responsibility to one another, and to future generations, to preserve our planet and safeguard life on Earth.”
Because here’s the blunt truth that Sagan eluded to: humanity has only one planet. There is no 'planet-shaped spare room' waiting for us to decamp to when the seas rise or the crops fail. The Earth is not a hotel we can check out of when we trash it, it’s the only home we have. Every barrel of oil burned, every coal plant extended, every year wasted listening to these charlatans is another brick torn from the foundations of our future. They gamble with the only world humanity has ever known, and the stakes could not be higher.
The plain fact is Farage isn’t a patriot, he’s a fossil fuel salesman. Badenoch isn’t cautious, she’s complicit. And despite all the Labour greenwashing, Starmer isn’t pragmatic, he’s a coward. Together, they’re writing Britain’s suicide note.
And our grandchildren may not live long enough to forgive us for what we have done, and for leaving them with the mess we failed to put right.
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