TV
Kate Plummer
Oct 28, 2022
Indy
Worried about the climate? Don't be concerned, it is "just weather".
At least that is what Julia Hartley-Brewer thinks. On an appearance on BBC Question Time on Thursday evening when the journalist dismissed concerns about the climate and slammed protest groups like Just Stop Oil.
She said: âIf you want to have limits on peopleâs ability to access fuel, if you want to make it more expensive to get a plane abroad, to use a car, to heat your home, you are going to be harming poorer people and you are going to be harming poorer people in the developing world.â
An audience member said her comments were âa bit ridiculousâ.
She said: âThe floods that have been happening in Pakistan, 30 million people displaced, climate refugees, that is our future.
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âAnd I think this summer should have shown everybody that we thought maybe it would be in 30 yearsâ time, 2050, but itâs happening right now and I think we really need to take action.â
âItâs called the weather,â replied Hartley-Brewer, causing further discontent on the panel.
\u201c\u201cI think it\u2019s a bit ridiculous to say that climate change is not as bad as is it. Did we not all experience this Summer where we got 40C heat?\u201d\n\nThis #bbcqt audience member urges the panel to take climate change seriously\u201dâ BBC Question Time (@BBC Question Time) 1666909880
Meanwhile, her comments came as the UN Environment Programme said the world remains âfar behindâ and is not doing nearly enough to reach any of the global goals limiting future warming.
âWe had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over,â the UNâs Inger Andersen warned. âOnly a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.â
With all this in mind, people on Twitter had... thoughts:
\u201cWhat does one do about someone like Julia Hartley-Brewer, being platformed on #bbcqt and allowed to say, on the day that serious scientists are warning of catastrophic climate tipping points being breached, with all the chaos that will unleash, that it\u2019s \u2018just called weather\u2019?\u201dâ Brendan May (@Brendan May) 1666905797
\u201cThe way @JuliaHB1 dismissed this powerful point on climate change as "the weather" was totally rude and ignorant.\u201dâ Adam Laver (@Adam Laver) 1666910835
\u201cMy favourite thing about this audience is that they're not angry at Julia Hartley-Brewer for going full-on climate-denier... They just think she's a total joke!.\ud83d\ude0d\n#bbcqt\u201dâ Femi (@Femi) 1666910986
\u201cThe way @JuliaHB1 dismissed this powerful point on climate change as "the weather" was totally rude and ignorant.\u201dâ Adam Laver (@Adam Laver) 1666910835
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