Politics

Sky News’ Chris Kenny Is Being Slammed For Using Coronavirus To Mock Climate Activists

"Gee it’s almost like there isn’t some cap on the number of crises that can occur at the same time and the number of approaches that are needed to deal with them."

by Rachael Conaghan  18 March 2020
chris kenny

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Sky News commentator Chris Kenny has mocked activists for prioritising action on Coronavirus over action on climate change, proving once again skeptics will take any opportunity to make themselves feel better about being on the wrong side of history.

“Remember just weeks ago there were politicians, activists and journalists frothing at the mouth about what they called a ‘climate emergency’ and demanding urgent action,” he said yesterday.

“They said the planet was facing destruction, they said this was the most important threat any of us had ever faced or ever will. Now suddenly it’s not a crisis and not an emergency. Not so urgent.”

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“You wait, they’ll bring it up in about a year and it’ll be an emergency all over again.”

In trying to make his point he referenced Independent MP Zali Steggall, who drafted a climate change bill that was due to go to parliament next week.

She’s since announced she would defer that bill, saying, “it is right that this emerging health crisis take precedence at this time”.

“The Climate Change Bill campaign will remain active and I will be continuing my discussions with all sides of politics about how we achieve a sensible plan for the future,” she said.

After a summer from hell many were hopeful that the government would be jolted into action by the destruction of 11 million hectares of land in climate change-fuelled bushfires.

Of course just because we’re suddenly faced with a global pandemic doesn’t mean the climate change tipping point isn’t still hurtling us towards.

But to any reasonable person, refocusing priorities to combat the immediate danger of COVID-19, which has killed more than 6,000 people, makes sense.

Apparently unable to make that distinction, Kenny is now getting absolutely roasted for his very wrong take.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, global emissions have decreased dramatically over countries like China and Italy, where nationwide lockdowns have seen cities grind to a halt.

Satellites from the European Space Agency and from NASA have both detected significant decreases in nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant that is released when fossil fuels like coal and gas are burned.

But Chris does make one salient point. Yes, in a year people will still be bringing up climate change.

But if the Coronavirus crisis has taught us anything, it’s that the government is able to rapidly mobilise in times of an emergency — when there’s the political will, that is.