Merlin Linehan

Screenshot from part of a Daily Mail article. The text reads "...been laid bare in scandalous detail in court papers. Now read how Net Zero is making the rich even richer - and, extraordinarily, there's even millions to be made by switching the turbines OFF"

Today's attack on climate action from the Daily Mail (whose parent company makes $$$$ running fossil fuel industry conferences) is that clean energy is "making the rich even richer"... 🤔

Never seen this line from them before - has the influence of Gary Stevenson reached the Mail editorial team?!

Some useful fact-checking here from @carbonbrief.org about a trope often pushed by the more fossil-fuel-aligned parts of the UK media... www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-wh...

This is the problem with the argument ‘we can just adapt’ to climate change. How do you adapt to this without massive health risks, an enormous blow to productivity and food security, and gargantuan adaptation costs?
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Perhaps no surprise given the advantages - Chinese solar panels are taking off in Africa🚀☀️

No surprise the Telegraph are using the heatwave to attack net-zero. Selective quotes from a report used to try and discredit net zero tech.

Daily Telegraph headline - "Heatwaves to set off net zero meltdown" - with advert on the page from the National Lottery

The Telegraph is owned by Redbird Capital - a major investor in fossil fuels.

So it's not a surprise that their response to this weekend's heat wave is *not* to focus on the fact that burning fossil fuels is causing increasingly extreme weather, but on more tenuous claims about clean energy...

Daily Express headline: "Miliband's target makes zero sense". The text starts "Net zero nutters are continuing to talk rubbish! and it's no surprise with Ed Miliband as their pied piper"

Today's Daily Express continues the effort by a number of UK media outlets to make climate change - which affects us all - a story about one man...

Today's Daily Express advertisers include *TUI *Vitabiotics *Vintage Cash Cow *Iceland & *Yimbly.com

Impossible to overstate how much damage billionaire media owners have done to public understanding of the renewable energy transition.

The Daily Mail is a cess pit of disinformation.

Telegraph headline: "Miliband's green jobs revolution is pure fantasy". Below it is an image of Miliband outside wearing a hi vis jacket and hard hat, pointing to something outside of the picture

Telegraph are at it again today...

With advertising from Tesco, Lotto and Sainsburys.

London Stock Exchange puts value of global green economy at $7.9tr Report confirms global green economy has enjoyed a compound annual growth rate of 15 per cent over the past decade, putting it second only to technology as the world's fastest growing sector

Those lentil-weaving hippies at the London Stock Exchange Group reckon the global green economy is worth $7.9tr, is the fourth largest sector in the world, and has grown faster than every industry barring technology over the past decade.
www.businessgreen.com/news/4413438...

This thread by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social is essential reading.

‘A cemetery of trees’: vast green expanses turned to dust as loggers plunder South America’s Gran Chaco Jaguars, giant armadillos and ocelots among species threatened by shrinking habitat in one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world

'A cemetery of trees':
vast green expanses turned to dust as loggers plunder South America’s Gran Chaco. Jaguars, giant armadillos + ocelots among species threatened by shrinking habitat in one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth.

How is this STILL happening??
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Climate change poses a threat to us all - and the evidence clearly shows the need for action.

Yet today's Telegraph continues the effort to make this all about one man - & frame urgently-needed climate action as dangerous & extreme...

With advertising from Coop, BMW, Trailfinders, Lotto & B&Q

Screenshot of story from the Express, dated July 22 2018. Headline reads: "Tony Blair struck £9 MILLION deal for institute to advise on Saudi Arabia's modernisation"

We're just going to leave this here... www.express.co.uk/news/politic...

Daily Telegraph front page headline - "Net zero blamed for blackout chaos"

Spanish authorities are asking the public to refrain from speculation about the cause of the power blackouts.

Meanwhile today’s Telegraph has run a big front page story blaming – you guessed it – clean energy policies…

With advertising from John Lewis, Honda & the Battersea Decorative Fair

Beyond shameless. Just treating its own readers with absolute contempt.

GB News Broadcast Almost 1,000 Anti-Climate Attacks Before and After 2024 Election GB News gave a platform to at least 953 anti-climate attacks in the immediate run-up and aftermath of the 2024 general election, DeSmog can reveal. Half of these featured attacks on clean energy polic...

A thousand more reasons for advertisers to steer clear of GB News... www.desmog.com/2025/04/28/g...

Screenshot of a letter to the Sunday Express telling readers that "It's okay to talk of releasing methane into the atmosphere, but it doesn't last very long before it dissipates, it's not as harmful as CO2 in that respect. The cost is the main argument, whether it is fracked here or in the US it will still release methane, but there won't be the release of CO2 from the huge diesel powered sea going vessels associated with the transportation of the gas. From an economic point of view fracking our own gas would be beneficial"

According to the UN, "methane traps more heat in the atmosphere per molecule than carbon dioxide... making it 80 times more harmful than CO2 for 20 years after it is released": www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

Yet this is what appeared in today's Express to justify demands to resume fracking:

Screenshot from a Mail on Sunday article authored by Peter Hitchens. The headline reads "Globalism. Warmism. We fell for both - and it made us a weakling".

Disturbing overtones here from the Mail on Sunday, telling its readers that "Globalism" (along with something it calls "warmism") has "made us a weakling"...

Supported by advertising from B & Q, Asda, Waitrose, Ryobi, PaddyPower, Prezzo & Boots

Image of a Daily Telegraph article headlined "Churches are being sacrificed on the altar of net zero". The image shows the interior of a small church, with a man sitting in one of the pews

The evidence is clear: We must transition to clean energy if humanity is to have a liveable future.

Meanwhile today's Telegraph is pushing the idea that climate policy is bad because it's a threat to (checks notes) rural churches...

This is what the Co-op & other advertisers are supporting...

I’m gonna say something that is going to sound crazy, but when has that ever stopped me from saying something publicly: there is a way in which the U.S. chucking its position in the world could actually fast-track energy transition. A few things that have me thinking this way 🧵

Alberta bill enables hydrogen home heating, electricity market remodelling EDMONTON - Alberta's government is looking to give the green light to hydrogen as a home and commercial heating fuel in a move it says will boost demand and reduce

www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/prairies_bc/...

This is insane.

I just interviewed experts on this v issue this week for Climate Insider.

They point out that creating H is very energy intensive, and only makes sense for hard-to-abate industries.

It absolutely does not make sense for home heating.

One other point about all the various articles attacking net zero - they are advocating for what is essentially a Trumpist strategy. Am not convinced he’s really the best model to follow right now.

Fantastic article on the adoption of solar energy in Pakistan - the mass roll out of panels in the country cuts emissions but also cuts fuel bills and lessens dependence on an unreliable grid

China confirms that installing solar panels in deserts irreversibly transforms the ecosystem For years, solar energy has been celebrated as one of the most promising solutions to fight climate change. But while the focus has often been on ... Continue Reading →

"China confirms that installing solar panels in deserts irreversibly transforms the ecosystem"

'...solar panels ... alter soil conditions, encourage vegetation growth, and reshape the local climate...'
glassalmanac.com/china-confir...

Reading reviews, endless choice of hotels and restaurants means organizing the holiday feels like it takes longer then the trip itself

Stunning growth in solar energy in 2024, driven by Chinese installation and production. Hope this trend can continue into 2025 as key to driving decarbonisation

Image of a Daily Express article from 26th March 2025 with the headline "Exploitation of our net zero madness is never-ending". The article has an image showing chimneys and cooling towers pouring out steam or smoke. Below is an image of the author and text reading "Tim Newark Political commentator". The image also (to the right) shows an excerpt from the article reading "US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has already called out the green hoax and, by the tie we have realised it too, the US will be far ahead of us in prosperity and security"

The Daily Express once claimed to have turned over a new leaf on climate change: www.societyofeditors.org/soe_news/exp...

Yet now they're lauding Donald Trump for "calling out the green hoax" and denouncing what they call "net zero madness"...

With advertising from Aldi, Tesco & Asda...

China’s foreign infrastructure push is greener than ever Renewables beat fossil fuels in China’s overseas power projects last year.

"More than three years after Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to stop building new coal projects abroad, the country’s Belt and Road Initiative is increasingly driven by renewables."

It's not altruism, y'all. Shit's cheaper.

Gas, not net zero, has driven up UK power bills Britain has been unhelpfully exposed to international price shocks

Terrific chart in this terrific piece by @pilitaclark.bsky.social: