What if doctors had blocked the M25 to warn us about the pandemic – would they be heroes or villains?

If they had, perhaps the UK government could have protected businesses and the public, and avoided prolonged lockdowns and massive taxpayer bailouts – even deaths, writes Donnachadh McCarthy

‘Insulate Britain are risking so much in trying to raise the alarm with their desperate disruptive tactics’ (PA)

Just imagine if…

In September 2018 and September 2019, the world was given two stark warnings by the head of the United Nations and the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO). If WHO warned that humanity was unprepared for a lethal global pandemic that could happen at any moment. If the UN warned that humanity was facing a threat to its very existence from the climate emergency, unless it started cutting carbon emissions radically by the end of 2020.

Now imagine if a bunch of doctors – knowing the UK government’s failure to prepare for a pandemic was putting the lives of thousands of Britons and our economy at risk –decided that the only way they could make the government listen was to block a junction on the M25?

If they had (and had received enough support from certain sections of the media), perhaps the UK government could have – like New Zealand – protected businesses and the public, avoided prolonged lockdowns and massive taxpayer bailouts. Perhaps 138,000 British families would not be grieving their loved ones, as they are today.

If this had happened, would those M25-blocking doctors have been hailed as British heroes, or criminals?

While Covid-19 did pose a lethal threat to a percentage of the UK population, it is clear from last month’s terrifying Chatham House Climate Report that the climate emergency is now an existential threat to the future of everyone in Britain. Its predictions of simultaneous extreme weather events within 30 years – and a 30 per cent drop in food production per hectare – means the potential for mass starvation, violent demonstrations, mass migration on an unprecedented scale and political collapse in significant parts of the globe within our own lifetimes.

The global response to the UN climate warning has been just as catastrophically lacking as it was to WHO’s pandemic warning. Indeed, the recent UN report stated that carbon emissions will rise 16 per cent by 2030, even if governments deliver on their current Paris Agreement climate pledges.

This is what drives the desperation of the climate protectors from Insulate Britain, who are risking so much in trying to raise the alarm with their desperate disruptive tactics. I was pleased to see their official statement that they have, and will, always let emergency vehicles pass.

The response from the UK government to the Chatham report (that it commissioned itself) has been a deafening silence, despite the report stating that we now have only a shocking 1 per cent chance left of not breaching 1.5C rise in temperatures.

The chancellor, who has been on the receiving end of a barrage of pressure from the tabloids to ditch even Boris Johnson’s timid pre-Cop26 pledges, did not even mention the climate or ecological emergencies in his Tory conference speech. And Priti Patel does not appreciate the irony that on the day she announced a punitive crackdown on peaceful climate protectors seeking to raise the alarm, central London – and the M25 itself – were disrupted by severe flooding.

If the government had understood the “code red” warning in the Chatham report, they would not be interpreting all of the sudden UK “supply chain” crises as crises, but as indicators of the rapid decarbonisation the UK and global economy has to undergo to avoid the destruction of civilisation.

The fossil gas supply and price “crisis” indicates that we need to insulate all our homes and switch to renewably-powered electric heating. Gas-powered heating produces 15 per cent of UK domestic carbon emissions.

The sudden ”crisis” closure of our fertiliser plants due to a rise in gas prices indicates we need to rapidly move to organic food production. Industrial agriculture is destroying our precious soil fertility and the N₂0 resulting from artificial fertiliser applications is 300 times more powerful as a global warming gas than CO2.

The closure of the fertiliser plants has resulted in a shortage of CO2, which is a side product. It has led to a shortage of the CO2 used for stunning animals in abattoirs and preserving meat. Meat is responsible for 14.5 per cent of global carbon emissions. This “crisis” indicates we need to move to a largely plant-based diet.

And the parallel “crisis” in the artificial, chemical-based soft-drinks industry, from this lack of CO2, indicates we need to move back to hydrating naturally with pure tap water –and getting our fruit from UK-grown fruit.

The drinks industry produces a staggering 5.5 billion pointless single-use plastic bottles every year, with the resulting carbon emissions and oceanic plastic pollution. A serious government would turn these “crises” into opportunities to overhaul the economy into one that protects Britain, rather than destroys it.

Instead, Priti Patel’s message to world leaders who are coming to the Glasgow Cop26 summit in November is to build new oil, gas and coalfields, expand motorways and airports and to lock up the climate protectors trying to ring the alarm, as we enter a “code red” future.

To me, it isn’t the climate protectors who are criminals – the CEOs of the fossil fuel corporations and their bankers destroying Britain are the most destructive criminals in human history, and from what I can tell, Priti Patel has put herself firmly on their side. Let me be clear – Priti Patel is an existential threat to Britain.