Climate Authoritarianism

How to alienate people from the green transition. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 27th May 2026 We will not persuade. We will not explain. We will not listen. We know best and we will force you to comply. This, I’m sorry to say, is how the government’s climate policy works. Or rather, how it doesn’t. Because nothing could be better calculated to alienate the people you need to reach than climate authoritarianism. Three astonishing things are happening simultaneously. One is the government’s utterly baffling failure to communicate with us on this existential issue. Where are the public information videos? Where are the televised emergency briefings on climate breakdown, like the emergency briefings on Covid-19? This is the reasonable demand of the National Emergency Briefing campaign, whose film is now being shown in more than 1,000 cinemas and other venues in the UK: a remarkable achievement. Why are scientists, activists and journalists – faint voices in the storm –…