George Monbiot



Profile:
Full name: George Joshua Richard Monbiot Area of interest: Environment issues, Politics & International Affairs, especially i.c.w. Global Justice

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

Email: http://www.monbiot.com/contact

Personal website: http://www.monbiot.com

Websites: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/georgemonbiot

Blog: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/georgemonbiot



Biography:
About: http://www.monbiot.com/about

Education: Stowe School, Buckinghamshire; Brasenose College, Oxford: Zoology Career: Career (Wikipedia); About George Monbiot (monbiot.com) Current position/role: columnist
 * Visiting fellowships or professorships: Universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics) and East London (environmental science); currently visiting professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University
 * Honorary doctorate: University of Essex, honorary fellowship: Cardiff University, 2007


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles/Main role: journalist, author

Other interests: patron of the UK student campaign network People & Planet; environmental and political activist, author and academic,

Disclosures: http://www.monbiot.com/registry-of-interests

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * After Japan, this green guru’s gone pro-nuclear, John-Paul Flintoff, Sunday Times, 27th March 2010
 * Solutions to control the climate (Wikipedia)

Broadcast media:

Video: see IMDb

Controversy/Criticism:
 * Jeremy Leggett: caught between low carbon and high-voltage rows - Former scientific director at Greenpeace is at the leading edge of a green energy revolution, and under fire from environmentalists, The Guardian, 26th March 2010
 * Great Moonbat is the one who's spreading 'misinformation' about asbestos" Christopher Booker of The Telegraph defends himself against an 'extraordinary tirade' by George Monbiot, 28th September 2008
 * David Bellamy and George Monbiot, two of Britain's leading environmentalists, have been arguing fiercely about climate change and wind farms. Their correspondence continues: Blow by blow The Guardian, 6th October 2004

Awards/Honours: Honours (Wikipedia)

Scoops:

Other: Cousin of Dominic Lawson and the solicitor Fiona Shackleton



Books & Debate:

 * Poisoned arrows: an investigative journey through Indonesia OCLC52024713, 1989
 * Mahogany is murder: mahogany extraction from Indian reserves in Brazil OCLC27106378, 1992
 * Amazon watershed: the new environmental investigation OCLC3063714, 1991
 * No man's land: an investigative journey through Kenya and Tanzania OCLC30919009, 1994
 * An activists' guide to exploiting the media OCLC77597381, 1999
 * Captive state: the corporate takeover of Britain OCLC44563069, 2000
 * Anti-capitalism: a guide to the movement OCLC49894259, contributor, 2001
 * The age of consent: a manifesto for a new world order OCLC59357399, 2003
 * Heat: how to stop the planet burning OCLC85018597, 2007

http://www.monbiot.com/books

Latest work: Bring on the apocalypse: six arguments for global justice OCLC183148937, 2008

Speaking/Appearances: http://www.monbiot.com/events

Debate:
 * George Monbiot is wrong to question my vigilance on liberty, Henry Porter, Comment is free, 29th March 2011
 * Is nuclear power still the answer to our energy problems?, discussion with Caroline Lucas, The Guardian, 26th March 2011
 * Coal isn't the climate enemy, Mr Monbiot. It's the solution, Arthur Scargill, The Guardian, 8th August 2008
 * George Monbiot won the day in tussle with Julie Burchill, Michael White, The Guardian, 6th August 2008
 * Discussion on George Monbiot's articles

Video interviews:

Monbiot meets... (taking to task the figures who hold the world in their hands) 
 * Jeroen van de Veer - In the latest of his groundbreaking encounters with the figures whose decisions shape our environment, George Monbiot challenges Jeroen van de Veer, chief executive of oil and gas giant Shell, on ethics, greenwash advertising, renewable energy investments and gas-flaring in Nigeria - 6th January 2009
 * Shaun Spiers - In the third of his groundbreaking encounters with the figures whose decisions shape our environment, George Monbiot gives the head of the countryside watchdog, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, an unforgettable grilling, asking why it opposes windfarms - but not opencast coal mines - 18th December 2008
 * Fatih Birol - In the latest in the groundbreaking interview series, Britain's leading green commentator tackles the International Energy Authority's chief economist, who reveals for the first time a startling and worrying prediction for the date of peak oil. Read the peak oil feature and add your comment - 15th December 2008
 * Yvo de Boer - In the first of a remarkable series of video interviews, Britain's leading green commentator, George Monbiot, charges the UN's leading climate change official with lacking ambition for a global emissions deal, and takes him to task over expensive carbon offset schemes and his support for the US president, George Bush. In the coming weeks, Monbiot takes on the bosses of Shell and the International Energy Agency and more. (Note: This film includes stock footage from Greenpeace) - 8th December 2008

The Guardian:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Environment issues (including: global warming, climate change, anticorporate activism, globalisation, nuclear proliferation...), Politics and International Affairs in connection with Global Justice

Section: Comment

Role: columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / George Monbiot: All comment | Climate Change | Comment is free

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Tuesday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2012

 * Yes, Mr Gove, I went to private school – but I want to challenge the system - For all his talk of social justice, Michael Gove serves in a government that supports the privilege of a plutocratic class - 11th May
 * Freedom of information: my monstrous idea will keep corporate tyrants at bay - Extending transparency laws to the private sector would make the likes of News International think twice before misbehaving - 8th May
 * Imperialism didn't end. These days it's known as international law - A one-sided justice sees weaker states punished as rich nations and giant corporations project their power across the world - 1st May
 * Deny the British empire's crimes? No, we ignore them - New evidence of British colonial atrocities has not changed our national ability to disregard it - 24th April
 * Daughter, my generation is squandering your birthright - When my second child reaches my age I fear the NHS, along with the tiger and rhino, will be part of a mythologised arcadia - 17th April
 * Britain's shadow government: unelected, unbalanced and unaccountable - Democracy itself is being undermined by publicly funded agencies crawling with conflicts of interest and devoid of scrutiny - 13th March
 * How Ayn Rand became the new right's version of Marx - Her psychopathic ideas made billionaires feel like victims and turned millions of followers into their doormats - 6th March
 * Britain is being rebuilt in aid of corporate power - Trust business, Cameron tells us, self-regulation is a force for social good. Silly me – I thought it was an invitation to disaster - 28th February
 * We need to know who funds these thinktank lobbyists - The battle for democracy is becoming a fight against backroom billionaires seeking to shape politics to suit their own interests - 21st February
 * The right's stupidity spreads, enabled by a too-polite left - Conservativism may be the refuge of the dim. But the room for rightwing ideas is created those too timid to properly object - 7th February
 * With its deadly drones, the US is fighting a coward's war - As technology allows machines to make their own decisions, warfare will be become bloodier – and less accountable - 31st January
 * Only a maximum wage can end the great pay robbery - Corporate wealth is being siphoned off by a kleptocratic class that has neither earned nor generated it - 24th January
 * The British boarding school remains a bastion of cruelty - While condemning global injustices against children, we fail to examine the ethics of removing seven-year-olds from their families - 17th January
 * Bankers can wait. Targeting protesters is much more Cameron's cup of tea - The Vickers banking reforms are set for 2019. But when it comes to undermining protest ministers don't fanny about - 10th January
 * That sleighbell winter? It's all part of climate change denial - The tabloids' forecast of Siberian weather has been forgotten. Unlike their treatment of the Met Office barbecue summer - 3rd January



Articles: 2011

 * This bastardised libertarianism makes 'freedom' an instrument of oppression - It's the disguise used by those who wish to exploit without restraint, denying the need for the state to protect the 99% - 20th December
 * Britain's press are fighting a class war, defending the elite they belong to - It's not just Rupert Murdoch and his crooks. All the barons who corrupted our political system must be unmasked - 13th December
 * We need to talk about Sellafield, and a nuclear solution that ticks all our boxes - There are reactors which can convert radioactive waste to energy. Greens should look to science, rather than superstition - 6th December
 * We're all paying for Europe's gift to our aristocrats and utility companies - Dukes, water companies and wildlife charities will be relieved to know their plunder of farm subsidies under the common agricultural policy can last until at least 2020 - 29th November
 * The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen - Our common treasury in the last 30 years has been captured by industrial psychopaths. That's why we're nearly bankrupt - 7th November
 * The unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest - Working beyond the authority of parliament, the Corporation of London undermines all attempts to curb the excesses of finance - 1st November
 * Advertising is a poison that demeans even love – and we're hooked on it - We are subjected to ever more pervasive messages to consume, encouraging dissatisfaction. Yet this column depends on it - 25th October
 * Millionaires and corporations are using tax breaks to help sway public opinion - Rightwing thinktanks profess a love of freedom, but their refusal to reveal who funds them is deeply undemocratic - 18th October
 * It's in all our interests to understand how to stop another Great Depression - When a man like Steve Keen says the trillions spent on refinancing the banks has truly stuffed us, we really should listen - 10th October
 * Bins, roads, unwinnable wars: this is a chancellor with money to burn - While the poor struggle to survive the crisis, George Osborne is happy to run a welfare state for corporations and billionaires - 4th October
 * A register of journalists' interests would help readers to spot astroturfing - Pieces paid for by lobby groups would become apparent if, like me, other writers opened a public registry of their interests - 30th September
 * Our planning system is authorised blackmail – and it's about to get worse - The interests of people come second to those of profit in a system where developers work hand in glove with government - 27th September
 * if we do impose sanctions on Syria. And damned if we don't'' - Foreign companies are enriching Assad's brutal regime – but even the Syrian people are divided on the issue of sanctions - 20th September
 * Secretive thinktanks are crushing our democracy - Free-market thinktanks may hide their funders' identities, but they reveal influence-peddling is rife in British politics - 13th September
 * This wrecking ball is Osborne's version of sustainable development - Economic growth is not the purpose of a planning system. It should meet human needs while the environment is protected - 5th September
 * A balloon and hosepipe as the answer to climate change? It's just pie in the sky - Increasingly bizarre attempts at geo-engineering simply deflect attention from the fact we need to cut greenhouse gases - 3rd September
 * publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist'' - Academic publishers charge vast fees to access research paid for by us. Down with the knowledge monopoly racketeers - 30th August
 * the dream of economic growth dies, a new plan awaits testing'' - Even when times are supposedly good, neither society nor the environment can take the strain of an ever-expanding economy - 23rd August
 * and fish quotas: Who will protect these fish from our feeding frenzy?'' - The EU tells Iceland and the Faroes to stop their fishing frenzy of mackerel, but only because it wants to plunder the stock itself - 9th August
 * deal: anger and deceit has led the US into a billionaires' coup'' - The debt deal will hurt the poorest Americans, convinced by Fox and the Tea Party to act against their own welfare - 2nd August
 * it really wants to cut carbon, why is the coalition issuing licences to drill?'' - Pledges to curb reliance on fossil fuels are hard to square with prospecting for more oil and gas and pushing dirty coal plants - 19th July
 * media is corrupt – we need a Hippocratic oath for journalists'' - Our job is to hold power to account. Instead, most of the profession simply ventriloquises the concerns of the elite - 12th July
 * nuclear industry stinks. But that is not a reason to ditch nuclear power'' - The debate is skewed by distrust of big corporate interests. Under proper scrutiny, new plants can give safer, cleaner energy - 5th July
 * and libertarian right cohabit in the weird world of the genocide belittlers'' - Yes, atrocities by the US get little media attention. But that's no excuse for this revisionism towards Srebrenica and Rwanda - 14th June
 * true value of nature is not a number with a pound sign in front'' - Cost-benefit analysis of nature is rigged in favour of business – and delivers the countryside to those who would destroy it - 7th June
 * wind farms? It would be less controversial to argue for blackouts'' - By rejecting all the means by which renewable electricity can be generated, the UK has set a very dangerous course - 31st May
 * 'green growth' policy looks naive today. It will look cynical in 2027'' - The promised 50% cut to greenhouse gases means little while rich countries continue to outsource pollution to poorer ones - 24th May
 * his denials: Cameron, like Blair, wants to turn 'NHS' into a kitemark'' - Tony Blair would heartily approve of this prime minister's plans to carve up health. But tactically they are miles apart - 17th May
 * 'greenest government ever' is the greatest threat yet to our environment'' - The coalition is preparing to bin Britain's climate change targets. After all, ministers have corporate sponsors to take care of - 10th May
 * face it: none of our environmental fixes break the planet-wrecking project'' - All of us in the green movement are lost before the planet's real nightmare: not too little fossil fuel – but too much - 3rd May
 * is impossible if we cannot trust police forces to tell the truth'' - From Blair Peach to Ian Tomlinson, there is only one remedy for police officers found to have made false statements: sack them - 12th April
 * unpalatable truth is that the anti-nuclear lobby has misled us all'' - I've discovered that when the facts don't suit them, the movement resorts to the follies of cover-up they usually denounce - 5th April
 * to protest? I can still be arrested if my placard reads: 'Nick Clegg, oh dear''' - Even Tony Blair's most illiberal measures have survived Clegg's promise to repeal all the laws that inhibit our freedom - 29th March
 * 2011: Guardian columnists' verdict'' - 24th March
 * Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power'' - Japan's disaster would weigh more heavily if there were less harmful alternatives. Atomic power is part of the mix - 22nd March
 * won't trouble Saudi's tyrants with calls to reform while we crave their oil'' - Unrest will be seen as destabilising for western governments too until our dependency on Riyadh's tap is curbed - 15th March
 * know what to march against on 26 March; here's what to protest for'' - Here is a challenge to the brave and brilliant TUC rally organisers – a first draft of a statement of aim - 7th March
 * anti-state right takes the Welsh for idiots who mustn't be left alone'' - Backing big government against the people is not so strange when what you really hate is state spending on the poor - 1st March
 * everyone condemns naked short selling. But not the British Treasury'' - The refusal to back a ban on naked short selling, despite the risk to the economy, exposes the cynicism of the Conservatives - 15th February
 * us, it's an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it's the heist of the century'' - In David Cameron we have a leader whose job is to quietly legitimise a semi-criminal, money-laundering economy - 8th February
 * me William the Conqueror's big society over David Cameron's any day'' - Coalition rhetoric evokes a public ownership of woodland lost centuries ago. The reality, however, is corporate tax breaks - 1st February
 * the banks? The government has propped them at every opportunity'' - Here's the story of how Cameron and Osborne secretly tried and failed to kill tougher European rules on bankers' bonuses - 25th January
 * the non-existent threat we spend millions policing'' - Spying on environmental activists serves no one's interests except for big corporations. Let's end this insult to democracy - 18th January
 * rich will reap none of the pain and all of the gain of Clarke's legal-aid cuts'' - To understand the government's phoney war on fat cat lawyers don't just look at the victims, look at the beneficiaries - 11th January
 * take the housing fight to wealthy owners with empty spare rooms'' - The hidden truth about our housing crisis is that it is driven by under-occupation - 4th January



Articles: 2010

 * cold claims lives while energy companies get rich'' - Successive governments have allowed Britain's privatised, liberalised utility companies to get away with murder - 28th December
 * snow outside is what global warming looks like'' - Unusually cold winters may make you think scientists have got it all wrong. But the data reveal a chilling truth - 21st December
 * astroturf libertarians are the real threat to internet democracy'' - As I see in threads on my articles, the online sabotaging of intelligent debate seems organised. We must fight to save this precious gift - 14th December
 * bill for PFI contracts is an outrage. Let us refuse to pay this odious debt'' - The great racket that was private finance now robs the taxpayer of billions that should be spent on nurses and teachers - 23rd November
 * landowners, not badgers – that's the real answer to bovine TB'' - Culling badgers risks spreading TB, government research concludes. But the NFU wants blood - 16th November
 * Britain's open for business – the sort of business that doesn't pay tax'' - I don't know if Vodafone avoided paying billions. But slashing staff at the Revenue clearly benefits our richest companies - 9th November
 * 4's convenient green fictions'' - The latest anti-environmentalist TV polemic, billed as heretical, fits all too easily with corporate thinking - 5th November
 * been conned. The deal to save the natural world never happened'' - The so-called summit in Japan won't stop anyone trashing the planet. Only economic risks seem to make governments act - 2nd November
 * Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by billionaires'' - By funding numerous rightwing organisations, the mega-rich Koch brothers have duped millions into supporting big business - 26th October
 * the Conservatives, this is not a financial crisis but a long-awaited opportunity'' - In a classic example of 'disaster capitalism', the cuts are being used to reshape the economy in the interests of business – and to trash the public sector - 19th October
 * goes against our nature; but the left has to start asserting its own values'' - The progressive attempt to appeal to self-interest has been a catastrophe. Empathy, not expediency, must drive our campaigns - 12th October
 * than pollution: crazy ants, bird-eating mice and murdering mink'' - They read like creatures in a gothic novel, but the species we've introduced round the world are real and cause untold harm - 5th October
 * can't use it – so why the heck are we prospecting for new oil?'' - To stop runaway climate change we have to get out of fossil fuels. Drilling off Shetland and in the Arctic makes no sense - 28th September
 * change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead'' - The collapse of the talks at Copenhagen took away all momentum for change and the lobbyists are back in control. So what next? - 21st September
 * was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly'' - The ethical case against eating animal produce once seemed clear. But a new book is an abattoir for dodgy arguments - 7th September
 * deniers, politics beats the science. Handouts beat both'' - From Australia to the US, the rightwingers who claim climate change is a leftwing conspiracy will grab green subsidies - 24th August
 * living in ivory towers now want to farm them too'' - The idea that you can feed Manhattan with crops grown in a skyscraper is the craziest of my allies' many miracle solutions - 17th August
 * have allowed developers to rob us of our village green'' - In its push for more public housing the coalition must consider the health and social legacy of estates without shared space - 10th August
 * evidence of the real war involving motorists, look in the mortuary'' - That cameras reduce road accidents is indisputable. Conservatives hate them because they catch the rich as well as the poor - 27th July
 * Tomlinson ruling: we must all fight this whitewash'' - First Blair Peach. Then Jean Charles de Menezes. Now Ian Tomlinson. It is our duty to raise Cain this time - 24th July
 * Tory bonfire of regulations lets the rich foul the poor with impunity'' - The failure of big business to police itself will cause crises in all aspects of public life – and the state will pay to put them right - 13th July
 * 'climategate' inquiry at last vindicates Phil Jones – and so must I'' - The UEA's climate science chief has been cleared: he was provoked beyond endurance. It was unfair to call for his resignation - 8th July
 * up the Mosquito and Manilow. And better still, lock the young up'' - Despite high-pitched sirens and curfews, still they are seen in public. I have a modest proposal to tackle the youthwave - 29th June
 * Ridley's Rational Optimist is telling the rich what they want to hear'' - The ex-Northern Rock man is in denial about his book's mistakes - 18th June
 * and misdirected, yes. But the Tea Party has a lot to teach the left'' - The radical right has an authenticity the left lacks – it is angry and ready to translate that anger into action. We talk, they act - 15th June
 * oil firms' profits ignore the real costs'' - The energy industry has long dumped its damage and, like the banks, made scant provision against disaster. Time to pay up - 8th June
 * state-hating free marketeer ignores his own failed experiment'' - Matt Ridley, the former head of Northern Rock, is peddling theories riddled with blame-shifting and excruciating errors - 1st June
 * after plan fails to make Oxbridge access fair. There is another way'' - Top universities remain dominated by privileged types like me. But one solution is ignored. Why? Because it would work - 25th May
 * not to like about high-speed rail? The case simply hasn't been made'' - I wanted to be convinced of the benefits but the figures don't work – nor, for this little island, does a plan for perpetual growth - 18th May
 * share their despair, but I'm not quite ready to climb the Dark Mountain'' - To sit back and wait for the collapse of industrial civilisation is to conspire in the destruction of everything greens value - 11th May
 * election 2010: Grasp the opportunity for reform'' - With no clear winner, the people's verdict is a plague on the old politics. Now is the time for real reform of our broken system - 7th May (Cif at the polls)
 * Labour is a parasite. A vote for them is born of fear, not hope'' - A movement for social justice has had its brain rewired to serve the rich. I cannot join colleagues in urging that it be saved - 4th May
 * needs a ginger revolution'' - If all the assaults on our old political powers could only channel their energies, we could break this rotten system - 27th April
 * climate debate shows green politics has grown up'' - Greg Clark, Ed Miliband, Simon Hughes could all have been fronting a Friends of the Earth campaign from a few years ago - 22nd April
 * links the banking crisis and the volcano?'' - George Monbiot: We rely globally on over-complex, over-strained systems. Act now, or wait for the much more brutal corrective of nature - 20th April
 * pope on trial would show what equality before the law means'' - The case against Benedict rests on international law's potential to judge all alike. No wonder the powerful are resisting it - 13th April
 * root of the climate email fiasco'' - Learning forced into silos of humanities and science has created closed worlds of specialists who just don't understand each other - 6th April
 * do our paranoid, anti-fun police seem to think they run the country?'' - Morality policing here is starting to rival Saudi. At protests and festivals, we need to reassert the right to gather in public spaces - 30th March 2010
 * America can end Britain's Trident folly'' - Talk of British sovereignty is laughable. We will blow billions on a nonsensical nuclear deterrent unless the US acts to disarm - 23rd March
 * English species face extinction'' - If a country that takes conservation so seriously can still be losing plants and animals every year, where does hope lie? - 16th March
 * trouble with trusting complex science'' - There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anyway - 9th March
 * we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?'' - Plans for the grid feed-in tariff suggest we live in southern California. And at £8.6bn, this is a pricey conceit with little benefit - 1st March
 * promises of self-imposed exile were empty – but I could help'' - If the rich-listers really want to maintain their wealth by leaving Britain, then let's provide them with a proper haven - 23rd February
 * this campaign if you like, but how else can Blair be held to account?'' - With the limits of power in Britain so ill-defined, the only way a reckoning for Iraq will ever come is via a citizen's arrest - 2nd February (see: ArrestBlair.org)
 * Tony Blair for war crimes. Arrest him and claim your reward'' - Chilcot and the courts won't do it, so it is up to us to show that we won't let an illegal act of mass murder go unpunished - 26th January
 * our economic interests are at stake, the war on nature resumes'' - All this badger cull will prove is that our relations with the natural world have scarcely altered since the dark ages - 19th January
 * maybe. But Avatar is a profound, insightful, important film'' - Cameron's blockbuster offers a chilling metaphor for European butchery of the Americas. No wonder the US right hates it - 12th January
 * the Tories tackle supermarkets?'' - Regulatory failure has given supermarkets a stranglehold on grocery sales. Do the Tories have the guts to take them on? - 5th January
 * this 60-year feeding frenzy, Earth itself has become disposable'' - Consumerism has, as Huxley feared, changed all of us – we'd rather hop to a brave new world than rein in our spending - 5th January



Articles: 2009

 * you want to know who's to blame for Copenhagen, look to the US Senate'' - Obama's attempt to put China in the frame for failure had its origins in the absence of American campaign finance reform - 22nd December (See: Copenhagen 2009)
 * Obama, here's your Copenhagen speech'' - Only one person can now rescue these climate talks. This is the speech to turn shambles to triumph - 17th December
 * is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity'' - It's hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers, but survival depends on accepting we live within limits - 15th December
 * climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it's working'' - Think environmentalists are stooges? You're the unwitting recruit of a hugely powerful oil lobby – I've got the proof - 8th December
 * image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling'' - The tar barons have held the nation to ransom. This thuggish petro-state is today the only obstacle to a deal in Copenhagen - 1st December
 * warming rigged? Here's the email I'd need to see'' - The leaked exchanges are disturbing, but it would take a conspiracy of a very different order to justify sceptics' claims - 24th November
 * one thing depleting faster than oil is the credibility of those measuring it'' - The challenge of feeding billions of people as fuel supplies fall is staggering. And yet leaders' heads remain stuck in the sand - 17th November
 * those local newspapers …'' - In my column this week I asked readers to name local papers worth saving. Here are some of the strongest cases - 12th November
 * I, too, mourn good local newspapers. But this lot just aren't worth saving - The idea of democratic flag-bearers died decades ago. I can count on one hand those brave enough to speak truth to power - 10th November 2009
 * James isn't a climate change sceptic, he's a sucker - but this may be the reason'' - My fiercest opponents on global warming tend to be in their 60s and 70s. This offers a fascinating, if chilling, insight into human psychology - 3rd November
 * this ruthless liar EU president is a crazy plan. But I'll be backing Blair'' - If the man who waged an unprovoked war in Iraq gets this job, it could be the chance to hold him to account for his crimes - 27th October
 * our senior libel judge stamps on free speech – all over the world'' - Mr Justice Eady's rulings amplify the democratic world's most illiberal laws – enabled by 12 years of utterly feeble leadership - 20th October
 * the army's in the dock, Justice swaps her crown for a bandana'' - Britain can hardly pass the democracy test when government and military police collude to prevent murderers being tried - 6th October
 * blaming the poor. It's the wally yachters who are burning the planet'' - Population growth is not a problem - it's among those who consume the least. So why isn't anyone targeting the very rich? - 29th September
 * toxic waste to toxic assets, the same people always get dumped on'' - Trafigura is just another case of global fly-tipping. It's all too easy for firms to protect profit and pass risk to the poor world - 22nd September
 * professor of denial can't even answer his own questions on climate change - Ian Plimer is a purveyor of 24-carat bafflegab. So why are publications like the Spectator so keen to champion him? - 15th September (See also: Spectator recycles climate rubbish published by sceptic'')
 * financial meltdown, it seems, is just not enough for Gordon Brown'' - No one on this side of the Atlantic bears as much responsibility for this crisis. But he's still in cahoots with the bankers - 8th September
 * pumping out CO2 to the point of no return. It's time to alter course'' - Scientists now say peak temperatures will not fall back. Join me in taking the 10:10 pledge – it's the best shot we've got left - 1st September
 * there any point in fighting to stave off industrial apocalypse?'' - The collapse of civilisation will bring us a saner world, says Paul Kingsnorth. No, counters George Monbiot – we can't let billions perish - 18th August
 * town is menaced by a superstore. So why are we not free to fight it off?'' - People know a Tesco will suck the marrow from us. Yet the decision is left in the hands of a remote and frightened council - 11th August
 * the Big Green Gathering another victim of the crackdown on dissent?'' - Organisers of the long-running festival have reason to believe that an excuse was contrived to bankrupt them - 4th August
 * denialogues don't care if their own children end up with syphilis'' - US conservatives can add teenage pregnancies and STDs to climate change and all the other things they love to disavow - 28th July
 * rich can relax. We just need the poor world to cut emissions. By 125%'' - British and G8 climate strategy just doesn't add up. As soon as serious curbs are needed it turns into impossible nonsense - 14th July (See: Climate change: summary)
 * pork barrel politics is paying for airlines to burn the planet'' - Demand for new routes and airports comes not from passengers but unelected, unaccountable development - 7th July
 * addicts need help. But all you casual cocaine users want locking up'' - I know people who drink fair-trade tea and coffee, shop locally and snort drugs at parties. They are disgusting hypocrites - 30th June
 * wish Charles would stay out of it'' - Even if I often sympathise with him, the prince's intervention in the political affairs of the nation is an abuse of privilege - 25th June
 * real effort on climate change will hurt. Start with the easy bits: war toys'' - Our brains struggle with big, painful change. The rational, least painful change is to stop wasting money building tanks - 23rd June
 * 300 years Britain has outsourced mayhem. Finally it's coming home'' - George Monbiot: Opium. famine and banks all played their part in this country's plundering of the globe. Now it's over, we find it hard to accept - 9th June
 * are not the mariners of old but pirates who make bureaucrats blanch'' - Like the slash and burn of rainforest farming, dredging is allowed to continue, despite the law and long-term damage - 2nd June
 * real British expenses scandal seems to be immune to exposure'' - MPs' claims are microscopic compared with the corruption bubbling along over PFIs and motorway expansion - 26th May
 * the political consensus collapses, now all dissenters face suppression'' - Peaceful protest - or 'domestic extremism' - is being put down with increasing violence by our police forces - 19th May
 * men would've stopped Darwin'' - Science research in Britain is now all about turning knowledge into business, rather than the beauty of exploration - 13th May
 * welfare for car companies must stop now'' - No 'green new deal', Peter Mandelson's bailout plan for the auto industry is just a retread of old-fashioned nationalisation - 8th May
 * £2bn Mandelson fiefdom is an open door to corporate predators'' - BERR has become a cell within government that interferes with both social democracy and free markets - 5th May
 * videos won't change the Met'' - Police officers seem able to use violence with impunity. But where the state has failed, demonstrators are refusing to lie down - 21st April
 * against democracy'' - Both the police and the government appear to be taking their instructions from a multinational energy company. (See: Secret police intelligence was given to E.ON before planned demo) - 20th April
 * spend millions on smallpox, but nothing on this far greater threat'' - Our leaders' approach to risk is unbalanced: huge resources to guard against an extinct disease, and nothing on oil running out - 14th April
 * are being fleeced in the biggest, weirdest rip-off yet: a widened M25'' - The state's road-building deal guarantees profits to private firms, while taxpayers put up the money and take the risks - 7th April
 * when we need him, the professor has an acute attack of the Bellamoids'' - The new planning regime for wind farms is not a 'fascist' erosion of our freedoms; it is vital for the survival of our planet - 31st March
 * with everything. It's the Atkins plan of the low-carbon world'' - The latest miracle mass fuel cure, biochar, does not stand up; yet many who should know better have been suckered into it - 24th March
 * we behave as if it's too late, then our prophecy is bound to come true'' - However unlikely success might be, we can't afford to abandon efforts to cut emissions - we just don't have any better option - 17th March
 * scam is nothing but a handout for motor companies, resprayed green'' - Paying drivers to scrap their old cars and buy new ones will do nothing to catalyse a low-carbon transport revolution - 10th March
 * revolting trade in human lives is an incentive to lock people up'' - The inmate population has soared since Britain started running prisons for profit. Little wonder lobbyists want Titan jails - 3rd March
 * you'll never find execution or eviction on a National Trust tea towel'' - Britain's biggest private landowner has done more than any other body to sanitise the national consciousness - 24th February
 * that great colonising land, has itself become a colony'' - Only one of the UK's four nations is deprived of its own assembly. You need not love the place to call for it to have a parliament - 17th February
 * what exactly do you stand for, Hazel Blears - except election?'' - The minister claims to have political guts, but the only principle her voting record shows is slavish obedience - 10th February
 * is broken, so what do we do? We leave it to the politicians'' - The government couldn't revitalise this rotten system even if it wanted to. It's down to us - and we can learn from the US - 3rd February
 * lobbying scandal confirms it. The dying days of Labour are upon us'' - A party elected to stamp out collusion has abjectly failed. Now, expect it to be mired in sleaze claims, as the Tories were in 1997 - 27th January
 * the state can't save us, we need a licence to print our own money'' - It bypasses greedy banks. It recharges local economies. It's time to think seriously about an alternative currency - 20th January
 * third runway is the final betrayal'' - A Labour government approves the expansion of Heathrow – why, it's almost enough to make you vote Tory - 16th January (see: Runway 3)
 * is indeed a class war, and the campaign against the Aga starts here'' - Climate change allows the richest on earth to trash the lives of the poorest, no matter how Furedi's cult spins it - 13th January (Wikipedia-Frank Furedi)
 * will take more than goodwill and greenwash to save the biosphere'' - Shell may boast about tackling climate change, but companies tend always to sacrifice good intentions for hard cash - 6th January



Articles: 2008

 * Beeching turned the country I have come to love into an outpost of empire'' - The Welsh rail map is a classic indicator of an extractive economy, with lines extended towards London and the ports - 30th December 2008
 * and birdwatching: the dark heart of the eco-terrorist peril - Without violent activism to monitor, the police's paranoia squad is demonising peaceful protest to stay in business - 23rd December 2008 (Responses: behind the harassment law did not want it to stifle protest - Edward Countryman - 7th January 2009 and act only stops protesters who seriously harass'' - Tim Lawson-Cruttenden - 14th January 2009)
 * in this crisis, the government still offers refuge to pinstriped pirates'' - Britain's tax havens fuel crime and corruption on a huge scale but, for Brown, keeping business happy is still the priority - 16th December 2008
 * has buried its head in a cesspit of climate change gibberish'' - The Stansted protesters get it. The politicians of Poznan don't quite. But online, planted deniers drive a blinkered fiction - 9th December 2008
 * detailed, impressive - but futile in the face of runaway climate change'' - This environmental state of emergency demands a bolder answer than Lord Turner's. We could start by taking six critical steps - 2nd December 2008
 * planet is now so vandalised that only total energy renewal can save us'' - It may be too late. But without radical action, we will be the generation that saved the banks and let the biosphere collapse - 25th November 2008
 * is innocent: the toxic spawn of Bretton Woods was no plan of his'' - The economist's dream was blocked for an IMF serving the rich. Reforms proposed by G20 leaders are too little, too late - 18th November 2008
 * we forget: the generals chose to kill their sons rather than their policies'' - On the 90th anniversary of the end of the first world war, it's salutory to recall who slaughtered whom and for what - 11th November 2008
 * these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington'' - The degradation of intelligence and learning in American politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies - 28th October 2008
 * an hour is a long time in politics, we must start thinking in centuries'' - From banking to the climate, the wreckage of short-termism is stark, and the need for a 100-year committee is plain - 21st October 2008
 * stock collapse is petty when compared to the nature crunch'' - The financial crisis at least affords us an opportunity to now rethink our catastrophic ecological trajectory - 14th October 2008
 * green subsidy for car makers is just a disguised corporate bail-out'' - Having long sabotaged eco-innovations, the motor industry is now demanding billions to cut its carbon emissions - 7th October 2008
 * free market preachers have long practised state welfare for the rich'' - Bailing out banks seems unprecedented, but the US government's form in subsidising big business is well established - 30th September 2008
 * patron saint of charlatans is again spreading dangerous misinformation'' - The Sunday Telegraph columnist Christopher Booker has published 38 articles about asbestos - and every one is wrong - 23rd September 2008
 * can the rich still be buying our silence with this 13th-century law?'' - If even football fans can be sued by their club for online remarks, it's clear libel is too easily used to stifle legitimate dissent - 17th September 2008
 * thing is clear from the history of trade: protectionism makes you rich'' - However much Peter Mandelson bullies them, poor countries know his equation of fair trade and free trade is nonsense - 9th September 2008
 * I'm a fructivist. My mission is to show you what you're missing'' - We have lost the sweetest of our native fruit: the only way to get it back is to grow it - even if that means guerrilla grafting - 2nd September 2008
 * countries once used gunboats to seize food. Now they use trade deals'' - The world's hungriest are the losers as an old colonialism returns to govern relations between wealthy and poor nations - 26th August 2008
 * US missile defence system is the magic pudding that will never run out'' - Poland is just the latest fall guy for an American foreign policy dictated by military industrial lobbyists in Washington - 19th August 2008
 * King Coal is a brave old soul, but he is talking utter nonsense'' - Arthur Scargill's nostalgia would punish the people he cares about. And as for his room-full-of-radiation challenge? I accept - 12th August 2008
 * rather be a hypocrite than a cynic like Julie Burchill'' - Give me a posh, preachy eco-activist over a narcissist without a moral compass any day - Guardian.co.uk - 6th August 2008
 * The stakes could not be higher. Everything hinges on stopping coal - The climate camp must succeed. In the absence of political backbone, our only hope is an avalanche of public revulsion - 5th August 2008
 * We lie and bluster about our nukes - and then wag our fingers at Iran - By failing to disarm and breaking the rules when it suits, nuclear states are driving proliferation as much as Ahmadinejad - 29th July 2008
 * The great lunar rockism con - I've changed my mind: I do want to make films for Channel 4 again. Here's a pitch - Comment is free - 24th July 2008
 * Don't be fooled by the climate change bill. Carbon trading torpedoes it - The rigged statistics and exported emissions will render worthless the apparently radical targets Labour is now setting - 24th July 2008
 * Why does Channel 4 seem to be waging a war against the greens? - Channel 4 is once again fiercely criticised by the TV watchdog for distorting the views of climate scientists - 22nd July 2008
 * Global warming is a brutal truth - Channel 4's dismissal of Ofcom's damning verdict about its flawed programme is the usual professional self-deception - 21st July 2008 (Comment is free)
 * A national disgrace, a global menace, and a pre-democratic anachronism - Britain's libel laws are a gift to the censorious and powerful. It's better to be caught mugging than to be caught speaking freely - 15th July 2008
 * Trawlermen cling on as oceans empty of fish - and the ecosystem is gasping - Europe is propping up an unsustainable industry in an extreme example of short-termism that our children will pay for - 8th July 2008
 * This economic panic is pushing the planet right back down the agenda - Oil-dependent countries are focused on growth at all costs, and the pale green political consensus looks unlikely to hold - 1st July 2008
 * Crime is falling - but our obsession with locking people up keeps growing - Wealth, and the desire to preserve it, is what drives citizens of rich nations to demand an increasingly punitive justice system - 24th June 2008
 * How many innocent people are going out of their minds today? - Guantánamo has proved a useful distraction from the secret detention camps run by the US around the world - 17th June 2008
 * These objects of contempt are now our best chance of feeding the world - Peasants are detested by both communists and capitalists - but when it comes to productivity a small farm is unbeatable - 10th June 2008
 * War criminals must fear punishment. That's why I went for John Bolton - As long as the greatest crime of the 21st century remains unprosecuted, we all have a duty to keep the truth alive - 3rd June 2008
 * We have gone mad, Your Majesty, and only you can cure our affliction - An open letter to the leader of Opec's biggest oil producer, the one man who can force Britain to cut its carbon emissions - 27th May 2008
 * This government has been the most rightwing since the second world war - The prospect of a Tory in No 10 does worry me - but no more so than another term for this cabinet of war criminals - 20th May 2008
 * The survivors' stories leave no doubt: Guantánamo makes us all less safe - Official accounts reveal with chilling clarity that acts carried out in the name of the war on terror have backfired dreadfully - 13th May 2008
 * If there is a God, he's not green. Otherwise airships would take off - Many will cite the Hindenburg, but flying without harming the planet is possible. These craft are worth developing - 6th May 2008
 * Labour's perverse polyclinic scheme is the next step in privatising the NHS - The giant healthcare centres set to replace local GP surgeries are good for no one but the firms who will profit - 29th April 2008
 * The most potent weapon wielded by the empires of Murdoch and China - A riveting account of two of the world's most powerful forces has been ignored - blame anticipatory compliance - 22nd April 2008
 * Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger. And if you care, eat less meat - A food recession is under way. Biofuels are a crime against humanity, but - take it from a flesh eater - flesh eating is worse - 15th April 2008
 * Jobs are used to justify anything, but the numbers don't add up - The credibility of the employment claims made for projects like nuclear newbuild is rarely, if ever, questioned - 1st April 2008
 * Carbon capture is turning out to be just another great green scam - Cleaner technology is possible, but Labour plans to introduce it so slowly that any benefits will be lost in higher coal output - 18th March 2008
 * Making GPs more accessible is just a disguised concession to big business - Extended opening hours will transfer resources away from those in most need, and allow private companies to fill the gaps - 11th March 2008''
 * Did the Standard tell the truth about the Heathrow climate change camp? - The press watchdog mostly looks the other way when complaints are made, but it mustn't brush this one under the carpet - 4th March 2008
 * Face facts, Cardinal. Our awful rate of abortion is partly your responsibility - agree with His Eminence about the distress caused by the deaths of unborn children - but his policies will only increase the rate - 26th February 2008
 * Juggle a few of these numbers, and it makes economic sense to kill people - Britain's official approach to climate change puts a price on human lives. And the richer you are, the more yours is worth - 19th February 2008
 * Apart from used chip fat, there is no such thing as a sustainable biofuel - Even capitalists now admit the oil crisis is real. But their solutions border on lunacy as they avoid the obvious answer - 12th February 2008
 * This scandal makes it clear: for Labour, money trumps principle every time - Peter Hain's choice of donor defaces his reputation and reveals the surrender of his party to the super-rich - 5th February 2008
 * Population growth is a threat. But it pales against the greed of the rich - 29th January 2008
 * Only class war on public schools can rid us of this unhinged ruling class - Cowardice over the charitable status of private education leaves power in the hands of a tiny, damaged elite - 22nd January 2008
 * How Britain became party to a crime that may have killed a million people - Not having a written constitution allowed Blair and his advisers to go to war without reference to parliament or the public - 1st January 2008



Articles: 2007

 * We've been suckered again by the US. So far the Bali deal is worse than Kyoto - America will keep on wrecking climate talks as long as those with vested interests in oil and gas fund its political system - 17th December 2007
 * The real answer to climate change is to leave fossil fuels in the ground - All the talk in Bali about cutting carbon means nothing while ever more oil and coal is being extracted and burned - 11th December 2007
 * This crisis demands a reappraisal of who we are and what progress means - Outdated figures have been hiding the full extent of climate change. But I am still advocating action, and not despair - 4th December 2007
 * We build 3 million homes - or leave these families in Dickensian misery - It sounds preposterous: 3 million new homes in England alone by 2020. My instinct is to fight this project - 27th November 2007
 * The Middle East has had a secretive nuclear power in its midst for years - When will the US and the UK tell the truth about Israeli weapons? Iran isn't starting an atomic arms race, it's joining one - 20th November 2007
 * The anti-speed-camera campaign is built on twisted truth and junk science - Petrolheads are full of swagger in attacking road safety measures, but can't cope when called to account for skewing data - 13th November 2007
 * The western appetite for biofuels is causing starvation in the poor world - Developing nations are being pushed to grow crops for ethanol, rather than food - all thanks to political expediency - 6th November 2007
 * Civilisation ends with a shutdown of human concern. Are we there already? - A powerful novel's vision of a dystopian future shines a cold light on the dreadful consequences of our universal apathy - 30th October 2007
 * Governments aren't perfect, but it's the libertarians who bleed us dry - Northern Rock's former chairman liked to rage against regulation, until his bank had to beg 16bn pounds from the detested state - 23rd October 2007
 * I'm sorry to widen the golf gulf, but I still want answers from Gary Player - The construction of new courses is big business worldwide, but it leads to dispossession and huge environmental damage - 16th October 2007
 * In this age of diamond saucepans, only a recession makes sense - Economic growth is a political sedative, snuffing out protest as it drives inequality. It is time we gave it up - 9th October 2007
 * The new coal age - The government says it wants a low-carbon economy. Yet on a green hilltop in south Wales, despite huge opposition from locals, diggers have begun excavating what will be the largest opencast coal mine in Britain. Who let this happen? - 9th October 2007
 * If you want to support the monks, then call Gary Player to account - Western interests in Burma contribute to the oppression of its people. Let's put pressure on the companies responsible - 2nd October 2007
 * Crack the shell of Brown's new politics and out crawl the same old maggots - The push for participatory democracy has the disturbing whiff of an Astroturf campaign - a fake grassroots movement - 11th September 2007
 * This great free-market experiment is more like a corporate welfare scheme - A hospital in Coventry lays bare the deceit of neoliberal logic: staff cuts, ward closures and millions to the financiers - 4th September 2007
 * How the neoliberals stitched up the wealth of nations for themselves - A cabal of intellectuals and elitists hijacked the economic debate, and now we are dealing with the catastrophic effects - 28th August 2007
 * Beneath Heathrow's pall of misery, a new political movement is born - It was not flawless, but the climate camp was still the most democratic and best organised protest I've witnessed - 21st Auguat 2007
 * Attack of the baby eaters - Shameless exaggerations of the climate protesters' dastardly plans have left us baffled at the camp - 18th August 2007
 * The new face of activism - The people who set up the Heathrow climate camp are neat, articulate and frighteningly well-organised. What is the world coming to? - 17th August 2007
 * The editorials urge us to cut emissions, but the ads tell a very different story - Newspaper exhortations on climate change sit uncomfortably alongside promotions for budget flights and oil companies - 14th August 2007
 * Because it is illegal, the climate camp is now also a protest for democracy - The ban on next week's Heathrow demonstration will not deter us. It will only boost the profile and raise the stakes - 7th August 2007
 * Brown's contempt for democracy has dragged Britain into a new cold war - The prime minister has broken his word and put us all at risk by allowing a US missile defence base on the North York Moors - 31st July 2007
 * Ethical shopping is just another way of showing how rich you are - The middle classes congratulate themselves on going green, then carry on buying and flying as much as before - 24th July 2007
 * They still rage about the class war, but keep funding their class enemies - The unions will clearly take any level of Labour abuse, leaving Brown free to bank their money as he appeases the bosses - 10th July 2007
 * Stop doing the CBI's bidding, and we could be fossil fuel free in 20 years - Prospects for renewable power are promising. But it means nothing if the public interest is drowned by corporate power - 3rd July 2007



news & updates:


References:


Links:

 * Wikipedia bio
 * Friends of the Earth: George Monbiot