![]() ![]() Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham argued in a tweet that ”climate lockdowns will come right after the Covid lockdowns.” Prominent climate sceptics Steve Milloy and Marc Morano made similar claims, and news outlets like Fox News and Breitbart also included content about planned climate lockdowns in their on-air broadcasts and online articles. The phrase climate lockdown received growing attention across social media platforms as high-profile influencers, pundits and hyper-partisan media outlets argued that governments were actively preparing to use the climate crisis as a pretext for restricting individual freedoms, akin to the measures introduced in response to COVID-19. Financial news site Marketwatch later republished a large portion of the article. ![]() In it she called for radical economic transformation and a “radical overhaul” of energy to mitigate the climate crisis and any potential restrictions that might eventuate, such as limits on car use, meat consumption and extreme energy-saving measures. On 22 September 2020, economist and University College London Professor Mariana Mazzucato published an article for Project Syndicate titled ‘Avoiding a Climate Lockdown’. In mid-April 2020, a Guardian editorial called for the post-lockdown world’s ‘return to normal’ to be challenged to continue reducing carbon emissions. Most initial uses of the phrase had positive connotations, contrasting the relative urgency with which one deadly threat (COVID-19) was being approached, to the other catastrophic, long-term issue of climate change. ![]() The phrase ‘climate lockdown’ emerged after the first COVID-19 lockdown was imposed in Wuhan on 23 January 2020, appearing a mere two days later in social media posts. More recently, it has been used to instil fear over proposed ‘15-minute cities’. Discussion about climate lockdowns first gained traction on social media in September 2020 as reports emerged on the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on global pollution, and some actors began to argue that these restrictions were in fact a precursor to future climate-driven lockdowns. When the essay was met with widespread public backlash, mentions of the phrase ‘climate lockdown’ were promptly scrubbed from news headlines, and the very notion of a government-mandated climate lockdown was declared a conspiracy theory.The term ‘climate lockdown’ refers to a conspiratorial narrative which claims that global elites are using climate change as a pretext to restrict individual freedoms and civil liberties. Planners expect the city could make as much as £1.1 million per year from fines.Ĭlimate skeptics have attempted to raise the alarm about the measure since its passage, describing it as the first step toward the kind of “ climate lockdowns” media outlets like The Guardian warned about at the height of the pandemic.Įconomics professor Mariana Mazzucato outlined a grim future in which people would be required to submit to “ climate lockdowns” for part of the year, barred from using personal vehicles and consuming red meat, while fossil fuel companies would be prohibited from drilling - all in the name of warding off catastrophic global warming. The city will also benefit financially, with any driver caught passing through a filter without an exemption or a permit being charged a £70 penalty (just over $85) per violation. However campaign director for Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, Zuhura Plummer, claimed that the initiative would “ save lives and make our city more pleasant now and for future generations,” citing an “ official analysis” that projected 35% less traffic, 9% fewer road casualties, 15% faster bus times, and 91% less air pollution. Thousands of residents have expressed concern about the project, which has previously been rejected under a different name - including 1,800 who signed a single petition over worries it would actually increase congestion. Read more EU demands ‘mandatory’ energy rationing
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