Protests choose the easy targets

In recent months we have seen climate change activists block roads, interfere with the journeys of rail commuters, attack commercial buildings, and even attempt to censor our daily newspapers. Ostensibly they do this in the name of a theory that the planet is undergoing a dangerous episode of warming, brought about by the emissions emanating from human activity. They claim that they are either ‘drawing attention’ to the problem, something hardly required, given that we have all been exposed to their views ad nauseam, or that they are taking direct action aimed at stopping those activities which they deem unacceptable. However it is noticeable that these gestures are all directed at Western enterprises.

It has just been announced that the number of coal-fired power stations granted approval globally has risen for the first time since 2015, with China making up two thirds of all plans for such plants, as the Chinese regime approved a 45pc increase on 2019 levels. In contrast the UK has largely phased out such power plants, in 2019 coal accounting for 2.8pc of total UK energy, including power generation and blast-furnaces for steel making.

It is not difficult to identify the reasons for Extinction Rebellion failing to, for instance, demonstrate outside the Chinese Embassy, or organise a boycott of Chinese goods. While many of their supporters are gullible idealists, who think that they are responding to a higher moral imperative, the driving force behind this organisation is an ingrained hatred of Western civilisation.