Brexiters, Climate Deniers and Trump: A Small World

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This is a guest post by ClimateDenierRoundup originally published at DailyKos

On Friday,ย we made a joking reference toย howย right-wing politics and climate denial operate within a single, metaphorical room. In light of the Brexit vote,ย it seems appropriate to remind everyoneย howย climate denial in the UK is similarly closely tied to otherย politics, by operating out of literally the sameย building.ย 

Last January, Kyla Mandel at DeSmog UKย made the initial connection,ย showing howย many climate deniers are campaigning for Englandย to leaveย the EU, including many names common to this column, like Matt Ridley and James Delingpole. Then the building where these two policy circles intersect wasย mentionedย last February,ย whenย theย Independent revealedย that the Global Warming Policy Foundation/Forum is one of many groups that call a single townhouse at 55 Tufton Streetย home.ย 

More recently,ย Mandel usedย the very neatย LittleSis mapping toolย to visualize the close relationship between the various anti-climate andย pro-Leaveย organizations and their leadership. She even included a floor plan for the building, which reinforces just how cramped those quartersย are.ย 

The overlap of climate denial and EU rejection is likely in part organic. Pollingย described by Assaad Razzoukย in The New Statesmen indicates that โ€œLeaveโ€ voters are more likely to be science deniers of various stripes, as half of those who wanted the UK to exit โ€œagree that those who question evolution โ€˜have a pointโ€™.โ€ The Leavers also had trouble getting other facts straight, for example about NHS costs falling upon the UKโ€™sย exit.ย 

Overall, according to Razzouk, โ€œThe Leave campaign would never have been able to make many of its claims if more voters were prone to fact-checking and less prone toย fear-mongering.โ€ย 

Speaking ofย fear-mongering, Donald Trump landed in Scotland shortly after the votes were counted andย tweetedย that Scotland was โ€œ going wild over the vote. They took their country back, just like we will take America back.โ€ Which is some nice rhetoric, butย as was quickly pointed out, in need of fact-checking, since 62% of Scotlandโ€™s voters wanted to stay in the EU.ย 

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