You Don't Want to Miss DeSmog UK's Most Important Stories From January

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It has only been one month into the New Year and already so much has happened. Weโ€™ve scored some amazing achievements in the fight to clear the PR pollution clouding climateย science.

So as we head into February โ€“ and incidentally the sixth month anniversary of DeSmog UK โ€“ we share here with you our January highlights and say thank you for your keen interest and loyalย readership.

By far the most incredible moment has been climate denier Matt Ridleyโ€™s response in The Times to our #mattkingcoalย investigation.

#mattkingcoal

During the first week of January, DeSmog UK wrote about the planning permission granted to open two new profitable opencast coal mines close to Lord Ridleyโ€™s Grade I listed statelyย home.

This story received over 100,000 views on Facebook. But that was just theย beginning.

We emailed Ridley to confirm our findings. We also drove five hours north to explore the Northumberland countryside and see Ridleyโ€™s coal mine with our own eyes. This was on the weekend of theย 17th.

The following Monday, 19 January, Ridley took to The Times to publicly respond to our investigation and defend his position as a โ€˜climateย lukewarmistโ€™.

โ€œKind friends send me news almost weekly of whole blog posts devoted to nothing but analysing my intellectual and personal inadequacies, always in relation to my views on climate,โ€ heย wrote.

โ€œI stand accused of โ€œwantingโ€ climate change to be mild because I support free markets or because I receive income indirectly from the mining of coal inย Northumberland.โ€

His admission that โ€œI could probably earn even more from renewable energyโ€ prompted us to ask: Why does Ridley still mine coal if he could make more money fromย renewables?

This all inspired Dana Nuccitelli at The Guardian to argue that โ€œMatt Ridley wants to gamble the Earthโ€™s future because he wonโ€™t learn from the past.โ€

Controversialย Bill

Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, MPs reviewed the controversial Infrastructure Bill which will allow fracking under homes and see oil and gas extractionย increase.

We revealed that Green MP Caroline Lucas would call for a complete ban on fracking in the UK. This proved hugely popular across social media with almost 1,000ย shares.

And while MPs overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to place a moratorium on fracking last week this hasnโ€™t stopped others from taking matters into their own hands. Both Scotland and Wales have called for moratoriums and MPs from all parties are questioning shaleโ€™sย viability.

Redactedย Report

The government has certainly received a lot of heat from MPs questioning its commitment toย fracking.

Many are calling for the release of an unredacted version of the controversial Shale Gas: Rural Economy Impacts report to improve transparency and trust. This report โ€“ released last summer under a Freedom of Information request by DeSmog UK Editor Brendan Montagueโ€™s Request Initiative on behalf of Greenpeace โ€“ has been redacted 63 times within 13ย pages.

Our story about David Cameronโ€™s attempt to cover-up the redacted report received over two thousand likes on Facebook alone. It seems everyone is questioning the governmentโ€™s decision to keep this report a secret, with Defra even blaming a junior civil servant for producing theย report.

BPย Sponsorship

January came to a close on a most triumphant note: the release of BPโ€™s โ€œembarrassingly smallโ€ Tate gallery sponsorship figures.

The landmark ruling by the Information Tribunal for the disclosure was the result of a three-year long Freedom of Information appeals process by Montague and in-house lawyer Samir Dathi and saw a full-page spread on page three of The Guardianโ€™s printย edition.

If this month has been any indicator, you can expect a lot more from DeSmog UK. So follow us on twitter and facebook, sign up to our weekly Monday newsletters (we hear theyโ€™re quite popular) and share us with friends because no one wants to miss out on the next bigย story!

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Kyla is a freelance writer and editor with work appearing in the New York Times, National Geographic, HuffPost, Mother Jones, and Outside. She is also a member of the Society for Environmental Journalists.

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