I first wrote an environmental campaigning article 40 years ago. The piece was about the need to phase out lead additive in petrol, which was damaging the brains of children and poisoning wildlife. It was written for the local newspaper which gave me my first job, and it drew entirely on the brilliant campaigning work of an organic chemistry professor at the local university, Reading’s Derek Bryce-Smith.
By the late 1980s I was getting big pieces on global warming and climate change into the Independent, where I had fetched up as environment correspondent. I claim no credit, and I hate to go into “When I were a lad….” mode. But maybe age and experience give me some perspective on newspaper environmental campaigns.
I do remember a long, bitter cold snap one winter in the mid-1990s, when snow lay across most of the country for days. I managed to get a large piece on the front page, the gist of which was “Never mind the freeze – global warming is coming, and the UK needs to take it seriously”. Running that showed a kind of courage on the part of the then editor, one Andrew Marr.
As I write this, snow has lain on the ground in my part of Kent for nearly a week. It’s really cold and a little warmth would be welcome. But I’ve not noticed any climate change naysaying. “Global warming is a hoax” isn’t trending.