Posted on 18 February 2023 by John Hartz

Story of the Week

Revealed: The Science Denial Network Behind Oxford’s ‘Climate Lockdown’ Backlash

A traffic filter scheme in Oxfordshire has been “weaponised” by the anti-climate lobby, according to disinformation expert Jennie King.

Not Our Future put leaflets through letterboxes in Oxfordshire.

The “grassroots” backlash to a traffic reduction scheme in Oxfordshire is being boosted by an international network of established climate and Covid science deniers and amplified by right-wing media, DeSmog can report. 

The group ‘Not Our Future’ made headlines last month by putting leaflets through Oxfordshire residents’ letterboxes calling them “guinea pigs” in the UK’s first “climate lockdown”. This was a reference to a conspiracy theory about a government plan to curb people’s freedoms. 

False claims about the Oxfordshire County Council scheme to cut traffic and pollution went viral online, with one tweet by climate sceptic author Jordan Peterson being viewed 7.5 million times. The claims, which have seen local councillors receive death threats, have been fact-checked and debunked as misleading, and the council has described them as “harmful to public debate”. 

Not Our Future’s director David Fleming, an anti-Covid lockdown and vaccine activist, presents his campaign as a people-powered movement opposed to a coming “authoritarian future” imposed by what he calls “The Blob”.

However, DeSmog can report that the group was conceived by Fleming years before the pandemic or the Oxfordshire scheme, and is backed by a network of high-profile climate deniers and conspiracy theorists based in the UK, Canada, the United States and Australia. 

It is also the latest sign of a growing alliance between opponents of climate action and anti-Covid vaccine conspiracy theorists. Not Our Future’s founding signatories include Kathy Gyngell, a trustee of Tufton Street think tank the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s main climate science denial group. 

Gyngell’s website TCW hosted an anti-vaccine event in London last week with climate denial author James Delingpole, anti-vax MP Andrew Bridgen, and 90s pop group Right Said Fred, the public face of Not Our Future.

Experts say fears generated by the Covid pandemic are being exploited to oppose green policies. 

“Until 2020, fear-mongering about so-called ‘green tyranny’ had little to point towards, and often felt like an abstract, even lame Boogeyman,” said Jennie King, head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) think tank. 

“The pandemic was a moment of genuine trauma for millions of people,” she said. “That trauma has been weaponised by the anti-climate lobby, who now condemn any public policy as an ‘infringement on civil liberties’ and draw direct comparisons with Covid.”  

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the DeSmog website.

Revealed: The Science Denial Network Behind Oxford’s ‘Climate Lockdown’ Backlash by Adam Barnett, Michaela Herrmann & Christopher Deane, Desmog, Feb 16, 2023

Links posted on Facebook

Sun, Feb 12, 2023

• Scientists fear a Great Toxic Dustbowl could soon emerge from the Great Salt Lake by Bill Weir, CNN, Feb 10, 2023
• As climate change disrupts ecosystems, a new outbreak of bird flu spreads to mammals by Zoya Teirstein, Climate & Health, Grist, Feb 10, 2023
• Antarctic Researchers Report an Extraordinary Marine Heatwave That Could Threaten Antarctica’s Ice Shelves by Bob Berwyn, Science, Insiode Climate News, Feb 12, 2023
• Natural disasters, boosted by climate change, displaced millions of Americans in 2022 by Lucas Thompson, Environment, NBC News, Feb 121, 2023

Mon, Feb 13, 2023

• Not to be outdone, the EU commits $270 billion to its own Green New Deal by Brett Marsh, Grist, Feb 3, 2023
• A major dairy company plans to slash methane emissions — but there’s an elephant in the room by Joseph Winters, Grist, Feb 7, 2023
• Skiers Seek Climate Change Moves: 'The Seasons Have Shifted' by Staff, AP/VOA, Feb 13, 2023

Tue, Feb 14, 2023

• Exxon Gives Up on Much-Hyped Algae Biofuels by Molly Taft, Gizmodo, Feb 13, 2023
• Google Hopes to Inoculate Internet Users Against Misinformation with Expanded 'Pre-bunking' Campaign by Lauren Leffer, Gizmodo, Feb 13, 2023
• Skeptical Science News: The Rebuttal Update Project by John Mason, Bärbel Winkler, Ken Rice & Doug Bostrom, Skeptical Science, Feb 14, 2023
• Sea Level Rise Could Drive 1 in 10 People from Their Homes, with Dangerous Implications for International Peace, UN Secretary General Warns by Bob Berwyn, Politics & Policy, Inside Climate News, Feb 14, 2023

Wed, Feb 15, 2023

• Myth-buster: Why two degrees of global warming is worse than it sounds by Daisy Simmons, Climate Explained, Yale Climate Connections, Feb 13, 2023
• Fossils in Colorado show rate of climate change over Earth's history by Cory Reppenhagen, Colorado Climate, 9News, Feb 14, 2023
• The Problem with Percentages by Evan, Skeptical Science, Feb 15, 2023
• Warming seas are carving into massive Antarctic glacier that could trigger sea level rise by Chris Mooney, Climate & Environment, Washington Post, Feb 15, 2023

Thu, Feb 16, 2023

• Fact check: False claim the rotation of Earth's core is responsible for climate change by Eleanor McCrary, USA Today, Feb 14, 2023
• How Climate Change Is Spreading Malaria in Africa by Apoorva Mandavilli, Health, New York Times, Feb 14, 2923Feb 14, 2023
• Greta Thunberg: Global leaders are dropping the ball on climate change, Op-ed by Greta Thunberg, Winston-Salem Journal, Feb 15, 2023
• What REALLY causes Climate Change? Overpopulation VS Wealth by Adam Levy, ClimateAdam on Youtube, Feb 16, 2023

Fri, Feb 17, 2023

• Cyclone Freddy, the year’s first category 5 storm, heads toward vulnerable Madagascar by Jeff Masters, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Feb 16, 2023
• In Scramble for Clean Energy, Europe Is Turning to North Africa by Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, Feb 16, 2023
• World risks descending into a climate ‘doom loop’, warn thinktanks by Damian Carrington, Environment, The Guardian, Feb 16, 2023
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #7 2023 by Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack, Skeptical Science, Feb 16, 2023

Sat, Feb 18, 2023

• Do people yet to be born have climate change rights? by Jocelyn Timperley, Future Planet, BBC, Feb 15, 2023
• Revealed: The Science Denial Network Behind Oxford’s ‘Climate Lockdown’ Backlash by Adam Barnett, Michaela Herrmann & Christopher Deane, Desmog, Feb 16, 2023
• Disappearing Saint-Louis byAri Shapiro, Ayen Bior, Noah Caldwell, Miguel Macias & Matt Ozug., NPR, Feb 13, 2023
• 6 Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient by Michael Kolomatsky, Real Estate, New York Times, Feb 16, 2023