Monbiot: Heath's 'Mediterranean life' call is climate nihilism
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- Allister Heath, editor of the Sunday Telegraph, wrote a Daily Telegraph column originally titled "Britain can't stop climate change. Scrap net zero and embrace Mediterranean life," arguing the climate war has been lost and emissions cuts reflect "suicidal empathy"
- Heath's column was published the same day drought was declared across half of England; editors changed the headline after derision on social media as the Mediterranean region itself went up in flames
- Renewables are already cheaper than fossil fuels in almost all situations, per Monbiot, who frames the "too late" argument as undermined by the Trump administration having "spent billions trying to kill clean energy and sustain coal burning"
- Telegraph columnists Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Tim Stanley broke with the nihilist consensus last week, arguing readers should rise to the climate challenge rather than surrender to it
- Reform UK insists "we are better to adapt to warming, rather than pretend we can stop it" — a stance Monbiot links to the same political tendency defending austerity and privatization that hamper adaptation
- Monbiot notes that "warmer climate" models could go the other way — some suggest the Atlantic current system could stall, plunging Britain into extreme cold rather than Mediterranean warmth
- Heath is also the man who called Kwasi Kwarteng's fiscal catastrophe "the best budget I have ever heard a British chancellor deliver, by a massive margin" — leading Monbiot to conclude "if Heath believes something, the opposite is likely to be true"
Why it matters: Monbiot argues the "too late to act" framing now replacing outright climate denial serves fossil fuel capital, because limited reserves can be monopolized by single corporations and prices spike during war or chaos — making any restriction read as class war. By publishing the "embrace Mediterranean life" column the same day drought hit half of England and Mediterranean vineyards burned, the Telegraph exposed how thin the nihilist pivot is, even as renewables are already cheaper than the fossil fuels it claims to accept.
