Last month the UK government sprang a surprise by announcing a ban on the sale of all internal combustion engine cars and vans from 2035 – five years earlier than previously planned. No petrol, no diesels, and (depending on consultations) most likely no hybrids either. It sounds like a progressive, even daring, pro-environment policy. There […]
A new report confirms bleak news for the organic food industry. Organic farming produces more greenhouse gases than conventional farming – up to 58% more. The study, published last month in Nature Communications, calculates for the first time what would happen if England and Wales switched from conventional to entirely organic farming in the first […]
Labour’s pledge to ban private jets over their environmental impact may be pure electoral politics, but it’s also a timely reminder to think about the best approach to tackling climate change and environmental breakdown. There are two main ways to respond to an emergency situation: set off alarm bells in an effort to neutralise the […]
“Daddy, Daddy. Can we clean your car?”My then three and five-year-olds came bouncing up full of enthusiasm. “How much?”I asked. “£1”. Their opening offer. 50p. My counter offer. “Deal”. And off they set. Dropping the sponge in the gravel and scouring the paintwork. A few minutes later they were finished, with my car […]
Even if your commute has been undisturbed by their antics, most of us will have heard about recent antics of Extinction Rebellion (XR). Indeed, since Monday of this week, several thousand “uncooperative crusties” – as the Prime Minister has termed them – have been clogging up our nation’s streets, demanding more government action on climate […]
It was approaching midday when a small crowd started to gather outside the local Quaker Meeting House. The demographic was mainly white, upper-middle class and aged between 35-65. We were meeting with the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion to discuss alternative options to the global warming crisis in the West. As we were corralled into […]
Freedom is underappreciated in the UK. As CapX readers well know, free markets and free people have made the whole world richer and more equal, and have helped bring freedom of speech and freedom of choice to billions. Everywhere from the United States to Hong Kong have benefited from capitalism creating prosperity, improving our living […]
“We’ve had a change in the laws,” says Gavin Sathianathan. “But that’s a necessary, not a sufficient, condition towards people getting access to cannabis medicines”. More and more people are using cannabis as a medicine, both in the UK and abroad; and in the UK the rules have changed to allow doctors to prescribe it […]
Last month, BBC One drama Years & Years gifted us a speech for the ages in which we – that is, the entire population of the world, apparently – were retrospectively lectured about how we let everything go to pot thanks to our unquenchable desire to make things better. “Every single thing that’s gone wrong, […]
Fifty years ago today, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins took off from Cape Canaveral in a Saturn V rocket as tall as a football pitch is long. Five days later they stepped out onto the surface of the moon, the first humans ever to do so. While the Apollo programme’s success was […]
Whilst serving as Margaret Thatcher’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, John Gummer attempted to increase the height of Britain’s sea defences, concerned as he was by rising sea levels. However, he was told by his officials that the Treasury would not allow it, so he made his case to the Prime Minister. Gummer recalled […]
Suppose that millions of Britons were driving a dangerous type of car that was killing 80,000 people a year. Suppose somebody invented a new car that was much, much safer, significantly cheaper, and emitted far fewer fumes, while performing just as well. Would you a) ban the new car, or b) encourage people to buy […]
“To boldly go where no economy has been before” was the theme of the Committee on Climate Change’s net zero report released last week — but with fingers cross behind backs. No industrialised economy has completely decarbonised, as the committee recommended. Going to net-zero is necessary, feasible and cost effective, the committee’s chair Lord Deben asserts about […]
There is a deafening silence surrounding nuclear energy. Yet, if you are to believe the current climate alarmism on display, the world’s future is hanging by a thread. Indeed, the forceful climate marches in London last week, the Greta Thunberg-ization of the world’s youth, and David Attenborough’s new Netflix documentary are all symptoms of a […]
Earlier this week the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Parliament with a powerful warning. Without drastic action we risk “the end of civilisation as we know it”, she told a rapt audience that included some of Britain’s most senior politicians. This was just the latest instalment in an extraordinary journey that has seen […]
If the worst of the scare stories around food supplies in the event of a no-deal Brexit are to be believed, the Government may well be inadvertently making good on one of its other policy objectives: to crack down on food waste. So starved of produce we will be, the narrative goes, that individuals will […]
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