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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment

The mainstream left is in denial on economic growth and the climate crisis

Flooding in Loughborough, Leicestershire.
Flooding in Loughborough, Leicestershire. ‘Growth-driven capitalism is propelling environmental breakdown’, writes Kate Soper. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

I welcome your editorial condemning the climate denialism of Donald Trump and of all those sharing in his obfuscatory responses to the Los Angeles fires (10 January).

I also agree that confronting the climate emergency will require “dismantling the political machinery that breeds denialism”. But it is because I agree that I have to take issue with your suggestion that the refusal to accept the link between the current model of economic growth and the depth of environmental collapse is confined to the populist right.

On the contrary, the commitment to growth is shared across the left-right divides of mainstream politics. It is, for example, being forcefully pursued by the Labour party. (The main aim of the chancellor’s trip to Beijing is reported as being to boost economic growth.)

Overt climate denialism may well be confined to the extreme right. But elsewhere on the political spectrum, it takes the form of denying that growth-driven capitalism is propelling environmental breakdown.
Kate Soper
Rodmell, East Sussex

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