Facts about UK’s Green revolution to tell YOUR local eco-warrior

To listen to Extinction Rebellion’s protesters this week, as they blocked roads, stopped trains and generally made Londoners’ lives a misery, you might have thought that no-one before them had ever thought of tackling climate change. But in fact, British governments have been working to deal with the issue since before many of those noisy activists were born. As far back as 1989, Mrs Thatcher raised the problem at an international conference - not that the Left thanked her for it at the time. This week, as they gridlocked parts of our capital, Extinction Rebellion certainly attracted a lot of attention. But they have done nothing to advance a revolution in energy that is already well underway, and in which Britain has been taking a lead for decades. The next time you bump into a disruptive eco-warrior, consider telling them the following facts: