Who are the climate activists bringing down Britain’s literary festivals by waging war against their impure corporate sponsors? The Telegraph has done some digging into four of Fossil Free Books’ leading lights and found a group of young people who seem to just love jetting off here, there and everywhere.
For instance, there’s Greta’s pal Mikaela Loach, who has “already flown twice to the Caribbean this year, a 9,000-mile round trip. First in January to see relatives in Jamaica, where she was born before moving to the U.K. as a toddler, and then in March to join 120 activists for a ‘climate justice camp’ on the exotic island of Saint Martin”. Apparently in 2019 she declared she would go “flight-free”. However:
Addressing the ‘Elephant in the Room’ on Instagram following her recent trips abroad, Loach told her followers she felt she didn’t have “to justify my whole life to everyone”, claiming criticism of her apparent U-Turn was simply a “distraction tactic” used by major corporations.
Or there’s ‘non-binary’ writer Guy Gunaratne, who, according to the Telegraph, has “regularly posted pictures on social media over the past decade travelling across the world on long-haul flights to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Tanzania”.
Gunaratne has seemingly taken at least half a dozen trips to North America. To promote In Our Mad And Furious City, the writer – who was then based in Sweden – travelled to and from the U.K. almost monthly for literary events, as well as a book reading 7,500 miles away in Bali, Indonesia.
Or meet Yara Rodrigues Fowler – said to be a key driver behind the movement’s anti-Israel agenda – who in recent years “has holidayed in Spain, Bangladesh and three times in Brazil. As the FFB campaign gathered pace this spring, she also flew to New York to give a lecture at Princeton University entitled the ‘feminist soapboax'”.
Charity might be said to start at home, but clearly climate activism does not. Which leads me uncharitably to ask the obvious question: if they don’t want people to invest in fossil fuels, why do they keep on using so much of them?
Reading the Telegraph‘s full investigation here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.