Dominic Lawson

Image credit: Sunday Times/Dominic Lawson.

Dominic Lawson

Credentials

Background

Dominic Lawson is a British journalist who writes columns for the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times. He is the son of Nigel Lawson, former Conservative chancellor of the exchequer under Margaret Thatcher and founder of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the UK’s most prominent climate science denial group.3Dominic Lawson for the Daily Mail’s recent articles,” Daily Mail. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/r3XQI 4Dominic Lawson,” Sunday Times. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/C516m

Lawson was previously the editor of the Spectator magazine and the Sunday Telegraph.5Dominic Lawson,” Sunday Times. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/C516m

He has argued against the scientific consensus on climate change for many years, claiming that global warming is “a good thing for species, including humans”, and suggesting that man-made CO2 emissions have made the Earth “become greener”.6Dominic Lawson. “Why a horseshoe bat in Kent exposes the sheer folly of today’s mass eco-protests,” Daily Mail, October 7, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/pOoyB

Lawson has argued that “zero-carbon mania is just so much hot-air” and has claimed that “no permanent damage has been done to the marine environment of the Gulf of Mexico by the biggest oil-spillage in history, from BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig.”7Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI 8Dominic Lawson. “Yes, Putin’s a brute, but it’s Greenpeace who are the bigger menace to our future,” Daily Mail, October 13, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9PYQK

Lawson is also critical of prominent climate change activists like Greta Thunberg, who he has described as a “prophetess of doom”, and Extinction Rebellion (XR) who he claims are a “doomsday cult”. He blames the BBC for being “obsessed with climate change”, as well as the Metropolitan police, who he says have “indulged” XR protestors “bringing havoc to the capital”.9Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI 10Dominic Lawson. “Behind science’s mask, Extinction Rebellion is a doomsday cult,” Sunday Times, October 13, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/LnNfI

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lawson was a vocal critic of the government’s lockdown measures, which he described as a “draconian constraint on our liberties”.11Dominic Lawson. “No, Covid-19 hasn’t made Britain socialist,” Sunday Times, April 5, 2020. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/z2ZVI

Stance on Climate Change

May 27, 2018

In a Times article, Lawson wrote:12Dominic Lawson. “Biomass: another renewables plan that’s gone up in smoke,” Sunday Times, May 27, 2018. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/F8II9

“CO2 is a naturally occurring compound, and its accumulation in the atmosphere can have positive effects as well as negative ones. Over the past 30 years there has been an increase of almost 15% in the area of the planet covered by vegetation: most of this has been attributed to increased CO2 in the atmosphere. It’s not called the greenhouse effect for nothing.”13Dominic Lawson. “Biomass: another renewables plan that’s gone up in smoke,” Sunday Times, May 27, 2018. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/F8II9

September 29, 2013

Lawson challenged the idea of a scientific consensus on climate change, comparing it to that among economists in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis, and among Western intelligence services prior to the 2003 Iraq War:14Dominic Lawson. “The UN’s hot air gets hotter, but the Earth just isn’t following suit,” Sunday Times, September 29, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/hZgct

“The existential terror that most obviously continues to seize the imagination of policy-makers is that described as climate change.”15Dominic Lawson. “The UN’s hot air gets hotter, but the Earth just isn’t following suit,” Sunday Times, September 29, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/hZgct

“That standstill in the global average temperature has continued in the intervening six years — making a total of 15 years in which no increased warming trend in global land average temperatures has been detected.”16Dominic Lawson. “The UN’s hot air gets hotter, but the Earth just isn’t following suit,” Sunday Times, September 29, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/hZgct

“In other words, just as economists cannot tell us how to abolish boom and bust, so scientists do not yet know how to fix the climate — or even if it’s broken.”17Dominic Lawson. “The UN’s hot air gets hotter, but the Earth just isn’t following suit,” Sunday Times, September 29, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/hZgct

Key Quotes

March 8, 2020

In an article for the Times, Lawson wrote:18Dominic Lawson. “Why aren’t politicians celebrating Flybe’s fall?Sunday Times, March 8, 2020. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/J87vc

“The thing is, the politicians don’t actually believe the world is on fire and I doubt they even believe, deep down, that it will be. They acknowledge, ritualistically, ‘the climate crisis’ in the same way most Anglicans regard the Bible’s prophesies of the imminent fiery end of the world: with unspoken scepticism.”19Dominic Lawson. “Why aren’t politicians celebrating Flybe’s fall?Sunday Times, March 8, 2020. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/J87vc

“That is certainly the case in this country, appropriately enough.”20Dominic Lawson. “Why aren’t politicians celebrating Flybe’s fall?Sunday Times, March 8, 2020. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/J87vc

October 7, 2019

Lawson claimed that the return of a rare horseshoe bat, not seen in the East of England for 115 years, exposed the “sheer folly” of eco-protests and was a sign that climate change was not all bad.21Dominic Lawson. “Why a horseshoe bat in Kent exposes the sheer folly of today’s mass eco-protests,” Daily Mail, October 7, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/pOoyB

He wrote:22Dominic Lawson. “Why a horseshoe bat in Kent exposes the sheer folly of today’s mass eco-protests,” Daily Mail, October 7, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/pOoyB

“What you won’t hear so much about is that a certain amount of warming is, on balance, a good thing for species, including humans.23Dominic Lawson. “Why a horseshoe bat in Kent exposes the sheer folly of today’s mass eco-protests,” Daily Mail, October 7, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/pOoyB

“As a result partly of man-made CO2 emissions, Earth has actually become greener.”24Dominic Lawson. “Why a horseshoe bat in Kent exposes the sheer folly of today’s mass eco-protests,” Daily Mail, October 7, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/pOoyB

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, criticised Lawson’s claim, writing that the article was “littered with typographic errors as well as woolly thinking.” He went on to argue that Lawson’s column “systematically misrepresents the risks of climate change and misled the newspaper’s readers.”25Bob Ward. “Another lukewarmer promotes unscientific climate change denial in the ‘Daily Mail’,” London School of Economics, October 11, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/tA07J

July 21, 2019

Lawson claimed in a Times article that Extinction Rebellion relied more on “skunk than science”, writing:26Dominic Lawson. “Politicians and the police must stop indulging Extinction Rebellion,” Sunday Times, July 21, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/KhBiP

“Assertions that we are already seeing a mass extinction from climate change, and the prophecies of imminent apocalypse, are a form of mass hysteria.”27Dominic Lawson. “Politicians and the police must stop indulging Extinction Rebellion,” Sunday Times, July 21, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/KhBiP

May 5, 2019

In an article titled “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air”, Lawson argued that green policies to target climate change weren’t “practicable”.28Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI

On the climate change debate, Lawson wrote:29Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI

“The whole business is an exercise in vanity and hubris.”30Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI

On the argument that the UK cutting emissions would make no difference if other larger emitting countries don’t do the same, Lawson wrote:31Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI

“Someone would need to tell the planet, as neither Gaia, nor indeed any of her inhabitants, would notice the difference.”32Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI

He also described the then 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg, as a “compelling prophetess of doom”.33Dominic Lawson. “The zero-carbon mania is just so much hot air,” Sunday Times, May 5, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/IIMyI

October 13, 2013

On oil spills, Lawson wrote in the Daily Mail:34Dominic Lawson. “Yes, Putin’s a brute, but it’s Greenpeace who are the bigger menace to our future,” Daily Mail, October 13, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9PYQK

“Oceans can and do safely absorb vast quantities of crude oil. No permanent damage has been done to the marine environment of the Gulf of Mexico by the biggest oil-spillage in history, from BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig.35Dominic Lawson. “Yes, Putin’s a brute, but it’s Greenpeace who are the bigger menace to our future,” Daily Mail, October 13, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9PYQK

“Its total leakage of seven million tonnes has either evaporated or been devoured by oil-eating microbes. The stuff is 100 per cent organic, after all.36Dominic Lawson. “Yes, Putin’s a brute, but it’s Greenpeace who are the bigger menace to our future,” Daily Mail, October 13, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9PYQK

“That episode has been a disaster on several levels, but none environmental.”37Dominic Lawson. “Yes, Putin’s a brute, but it’s Greenpeace who are the bigger menace to our future,” Daily Mail, October 13, 2013. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9PYQK

May 12, 2013

In an article that accused Prince Charles of being a “lobbyist” for the environmental movement, Lawson wrote:38Dominic Lawson. “With the deepest respect, Charles, please do shut up,” Sunday Times, May 12, 2013. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/GmThA

“The prince certainly needs someone to point out to him that the planet is not ‘dying’ and that it was doing just fine when CO2 concentrations were vastly higher than they are now or are ever likely to be as a result of whatever amount of fossil fuels we burn.”39Dominic Lawson. “With the deepest respect, Charles, please do shut up,” Sunday Times, May 12, 2013. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/GmThA

Key Actions

February 8, 2021

Lawson wrote an article for The Daily Mail arguing in favour of a new deep coal mine in Cumbria and criticising the government’s decision to prevent the construction of an open-cast coal mine in Highthorn, Northumberland in October 2020.40Dominic Lawson. “DOMINIC LAWSON: It’s sheer madness to import the coal essential for our steel industry when we can produce it ourselves,” The Daily Mail, February 8, 2021. Archived February 8, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/hlaKX

He described the notion of the UK showing leadership on climate change as “a form of moral vanity—and if it has local victims, they will principally be in the ‘left-behind’ regions of our country that the PM promised to prioritise.”

Lawson also criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pledge to make Britain “the Saudi Arabia of wind,” arguing that the expansion of wind energy was impossible without coal. He wrote: “Vast numbers of new wind turbines will be needed for this. And what will they be made of? Yes, steel. So the question is whether we wish to make as much as possible — or indeed any — of that steel in the UK. If we do, then coking coal is required.”

January 10, 2021

Lawson wrote an article for The Times criticising the government’s 10-point plan for a “Green Industrial Revolution,” including the expansion of offshore wind energy to 40 gigawatts by 2030. Lawson referred to this policy as the “equivalent of the USSR’s five-year plans,” adding: “the effect of increasing our dependency on indigenous wind will only add to the likelihood of the sort of market panic we witnessed last week — and of blackouts.”41Dominic Lawson. “The energy answer is not blowin’ in the wind,” The Times, January 10, 2021. Archived January 18, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/vMxoc

November 23, 2020

In an article for The Daily Mail, Lawson criticised the cost implications of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 10-point plan for decarbonising the economy, referring to it as “wastefulness.” Lawson also stated that: “replacing all our boilers with so-called ‘air-source’ heat pumps will not just cost at least four times more than gas-fired ones: the enormous tax-funded subsidies required will be for products less efficient at heat generation than those we currently use in our homes,” continuing: “Public expenditure to fund more expensive energy (for example, with wind turbines replacing gas ones for industrial use) is what economists call ‘malinvestment.’”42Dominic Lawson. “Boris Johnson ducks paying his personal bills. No wonder he doesn’t worry about yours,”The Daily Mail, November 23, 2020. Archived November 24, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/HjHiX

September 7, 2020

Writing in the Daily Mail, Lawson characterised Extinction Rebellion as “a small-ish but increasingly influential group of middle-class climate change protesters who want to silence anyone or any organisation that doesn’t share their hysterical view that the planet and its inhabitants will fry to fossil-fuelled extinction within a decade or two unless we return immediately to a form of pre-industrial subsistence”.

He went on to recommend a book by Bjorn Lomborg, President of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, which is funded by billionaire vulture capitalist Paul Singer, who gave $200,000 to the Centre in 2013. 43Dominic Lawson, “Free speech, fake science – and why we must take the fight to the climate zealots The Daily Mail, September 7th, 2020. Archived September 14, 2020 Archive URL: https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8704503/DOMINIC-LAWSON-Free-speech-fake-science-fight-climate-zealots.html

July 5, 2020

Referencing ongoing delays over a final decision on planning permission for a coal mine in Northumberland, Lawson stated in the Daily Mail that the Government “likes to portray itself as the ‘world leader’ in the ‘battle against climate change”, and that its efforts to reduce emissions were an “elaborate British con trick, at least in carbon accounting terms”.44Dominic Lawson, What has ‘builder’ Boris got against the Miners of Northumberland?, The Daily Mail, 5th July 2020. Archived September 14, 2020 Archive URL: https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8492273/DOMINIC-LAWSON-builder-Boris-got-against-miners-Northumberland.html

June 29, 2020

In an article about Extinction Rebellion protestors in the Daily Mail, Lawson stated: “Hot news from the Antarctic: the penguins are prospering. And why is that interesting? Because this is the creature which was supposed to be the principal victim of climate change and the consequent loss of sea ice”. Lawson ended the article by saying: “Meanwhile, the Adélie penguins are loving the climate. Can we be forgiven for driving cars now?”, downplaying the significance of melting ice caps on the wildlife of the region.45Dominic Lawson, “First they came for the statues, now stained glass windows. Yet one woman’s vile history is overlooked”, The Daily Mail, 29th June 2020. Archived September 14, 2020. Archive URL: https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8469071/DOMINIC-LAWSON-came-statues-stained-glass-windows.html

March 11, 2020

Lawson was invited onto Brendan O’Neill’s podcast to talk about climate change and Brexit. O’Neill is the editor of the Koch-funded libertarian media outlet Spiked and has written previously that “greens are the enemies of liberty”.46We need a democratic revolt against the climate extremists,” The Brendan O’Neill Show, March 11, 2020. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/3jrwQ 47Brendan O’Neill “Greens are the enemies of liberty,” Guardian, July 15, 2008. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/VQzbg

In the episode, Lawson described the green movement as “deindustrialising” society and “a form of impoverishment”.48We need a democratic revolt against the climate extremists,” The Brendan O’Neill Show, March 11, 2020. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/3jrwQ

October 13, 2019

Lawson described Extinction Rebellion as a “doomsday cult” and claimed that the protest group have a desire to “infect the rest of us with their own misanthropic terror”.49Dominic Lawson. “Behind science’s mask, Extinction Rebellion is a doomsday cult,” Sunday Times, October 13, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/LnNfI

He also claimed that the BBC was “obsessed with climate change”, the Metropolitan police had “indulged so many of those bringing havoc to the capital”, and that politicians had been “pandering” to protestors.50Dominic Lawson. “Behind science’s mask, Extinction Rebellion is a doomsday cult,” Sunday Times, October 13, 2019. Archived April 24, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/LnNfI

March 18, 2019

In a piece criticising school climate change protests, Lawson repeated a common trope used by opponents of climate action – he downplayed the UK’s responsibility to reduce emissions, pointing to China’s role in its increase of coal-fired power stations:51Dominic Lawson. “Brainwashed at the blackboard – no regimes were more polluting than the communists. So how ludicrous to see the red flag flown at a schoolchildren’s climate-change protest in eco-friendly UK!Daily Mail, March 18, 2019. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/OnGPG 52George Monbiot. “Stop using China as an excuse for inaction on climate change,” Guardian, June 12, 2015. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/XfyYa

Lawson wrote:53Dominic Lawson. “Brainwashed at the blackboard – no regimes were more polluting than the communists. So how ludicrous to see the red flag flown at a schoolchildren’s climate-change protest in eco-friendly UK!Daily Mail, March 18, 2019. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/OnGPG

“They have been led to believe that British politicians have been doing ‘nothing’ to reduce emissions of CO2.”54Dominic Lawson. “Brainwashed at the blackboard – no regimes were more polluting than the communists. So how ludicrous to see the red flag flown at a schoolchildren’s climate-change protest in eco-friendly UK!Daily Mail, March 18, 2019. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/OnGPG

“If these ‘striking’ school- children were at all informed on the matter that exercises them so much, they would be demonstrating not in Parliament Square but outside the London embassy of the People’s Republic of China.”55Dominic Lawson. “Brainwashed at the blackboard – no regimes were more polluting than the communists. So how ludicrous to see the red flag flown at a schoolchildren’s climate-change protest in eco-friendly UK!Daily Mail, March 18, 2019. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/OnGPG

April 13, 2014

Lawson wrote a piece for the Times where he argued that to solve the housing crisis, society must “unbuckle the sacred green belt” of countryside that encircles urban areas. While suggesting that stockbroker property owners were “masquerading as the ecologically concerned” by taking issue with looser restrictions on residential development, Lawson wrote that “some” of the “distinctly scraggy” green belt could be freed up “for more suburbs”.56Dominic Lawson. “Unbuckle the sacred green belt and the housing crisis is solved,” Sunday Times, April 13, 2014. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/5u8kU

In 2011, Lawson admitted that, although he agrees that green belt land should be built on, he “would do everything in [his] power” to prevent new developments near his residence.57Dominic Lawson. “Undo the green belt – but not near my abode,” Sunday Times, September 4, 2011. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/NUmWK

April 1, 2012

In an article for the Times, Lawson celebrated the fact that the Kyoto Protocol – a UN treaty committing countries to reducing their emissions – was, in his words, “dead”:58Dominic Lawson, “With our gas reserves we should be laughing,” Sunday Times, April 1, 2012. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Z7z0I

“Its full implementation would have cost hundreds of billions of dollars in forgone economic growth to reduce global temperatures by about a fifth of 1C in 100 years, it should always have been a complete non-starter on any conventional cost-benefit analysis.”59Dominic Lawson, “With our gas reserves we should be laughing,” Sunday Times, April 1, 2012. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Z7z0I

He went on to write that the government had “finally rejected the bogus economics of climate change”.60Dominic Lawson, “With our gas reserves we should be laughing,” Sunday Times, April 1, 2012. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Z7z0I

Lawson also quoted Benny Peiser, a climate science denier and the director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, who wrote that green campaigners had “become limp”.61Dominic Lawson, “With our gas reserves we should be laughing,” Sunday Times, April 1, 2012. Archived April 27, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Z7z0I

Affiliations

Social Media

Lawson does not seem to be on social media.

Publications

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