Now it’s a straight fight with the billionaires and corporations. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 21st February 2012 Shocking, fascinating, entirely unsurprising: the leaked documents, if authentic, confirm what we suspected but could not prove. The Heartland Institute, which has helped lead the war against climate science in the United States, is funded [...]

Is environmentalism compatible with social justice? By George Monbiot. Published on the Guardian’s website, 13th February 2012 It is the stick with which the greens are beaten daily: if we spend money on protecting the environment, the poor will starve, or freeze to death, or will go without shoes and education. Most of those making [...]

Conservatism is linked to low intelligence; but the real idiots are the progressives letting it win. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 7th February 2012 Self-deprecating, too liberal for their own good, today’s progressives stand back and watch, hands over their mouths, as the social vivisectionists of the right slice up a living society [...]

We can’t wish nuclear waste away: we must choose one of three options for dealing with it. By George Monbiot. Published on the Guardian’s website, 2nd February 2012 Duncan Clark’s article in the Guardian today should cause even the most determined anti-nuclear campaigner to think long and hard about the choices that confront us. He [...]

Drone warfare can be used to thwart democratic movements, anywhere. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 31st January 2012 The ancient Greeks, unlike the Jews or the Christians, invested their gods with human failings. Divine judgement, they believed, was neither flawless nor dispassionate; it was warped by lust, vengeance and self-interest. In the hands [...]

The weather forecasters used by the Daily Mail and other papers don’t appear to exist. By George Monbiot, published on the Guardian’s website, 26th January 2012 Earlier this month, I questioned the credentials of the alternative weather forecasters being used by the Daily Mail, the Express, the Telegraph and the Sun. I suggested that their [...]

Here’s why the government’s proposals on executive pay won’t work – and why we need a maximum wage. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 24th January 2012 The successful bank robber no longer covers his face and leaps over the counter with a sawn-off shotgun. He arrives in a chauffeur-driven car, glides into the [...]

In this and other nations, there are groups of children who can be abused with impunity. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 16th January 2012 Texas is a largely-Christian state that appears to believe in neither forgiveness nor redemption. Last week the Guardian revealed the extent to which it has criminalised its children(1). Police [...]

The government is ensuring that we can mount no effective protest against the banks and corporations. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 10th January 2012 When governments seek to protect the rich from the poor, they act swiftly and decisively. When they undertake to protect the poor from the rich, they fanny about for [...]

As soon as it encounters environmental issues, the ideology of the new right becomes ensnared in its own contradictions. By George Monbiot, published on the Guardian’s website, 6th January 2012 Over the Christmas break I read what I believe is the most important environmental essay of the past 12 months. Though it begins with a [...]

How weather forecasts became a political issue. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 3rd January 2012 “Brrr-ace yourselves! Britain to shiver in -20C in WEEKS as councils stockpile extra grit”(1). So the Mail on Sunday warned us in October. Blizzards, snowdrifts, locusts with the faces of men and the teeth of lions: we would [...]

Rightwing libertarians have turned “freedom” into an excuse for greed and exploitation. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 20th December 2011 Freedom: who could object? Yet this word is now used to justify a thousand forms of exploitation. Throughout the rightwing press and blogosphere, among thinktanks and governments, the word excuses every assault on [...]

Why is it so easy to save the banks, but so hard to save the biosphere? By George Monbiot, published on the Guardian’s website 16th December 2011 They bailed out the banks in days. But even deciding to bail out the planet is taking decades. Lord Stern estimated that capping climate change would cost around [...]

The corporate newspapers are the elite’s enforcers, misrepresenting the sources of oppression. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 13th December 2011 Have we ever been so badly served by the press? We face multiple crises – economic, environmental, democratic – but most newspapers represent them neither clearly nor fairly. The industry which should reveal [...]

The Spectator has allowed me to rebut Nils-Axel Morner’s rubbish about sea levels. By George Monbiot, published in the Spectator 8th December 2011. If people are committed to an unscientific position, no evidence or argument will shake them out of it. Whether they subscribe to AIDS denial, excessive fear of radiation, vaccine scaremongering, homeopathy or [...]

Why bury nuclear waste, when it could meet the world’s energy needs? By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 6th December 2011 It’s a devastating admission to have to make, especially during the climate talks in Durban. But there would be no point in writing this column if I were not prepared to confront harsh [...]