The star’s hysterical claims... and the reality
NO WATER AT SCHOOL
CLAIM: Children have to buy water at school because water fountains are unavailable or even deliberately broken, so more bottled water can be sold.
REALITY: It’s illegal for schools not to provide tap water for children to drink. And while the report said schoolchildren they interviewed claimed they had ‘limited access’ to water and would like more water fountains, The Food Foundation refused to comment on Thompson’s claim that fountains were deliberately broken.
The Department for Education said it did not believe any teacher would refuse a child water, and that if water was not available in any school, its board of governors and, ultimately, the Education Secretary could intervene. Ex-head teacher Chris McGovern of the Campaign for Real Education accused Thompson of ‘over-egging it’.
CHILD POVERTY
CLAIM: Children are living in ‘positively Dickensian’ conditions. ‘Twenty to 30 per cent of children are living in poverty in the fifth richest economy in the world,’ said Thompson. ‘When I heard about it a year ago, I couldn’t really believe it. And I think one of the reasons for that is that hunger carries such a stigma. People don’t want to talk about it, admit to it.’
REALITY: She’s taken official Government poverty figures and tried to equate them with hunger.
In 2016/17, according to the Office for National Statistics, 2.7million children (19 per cent of the total) were living in poverty before their family’s housing costs were taken into consideration, and 4.1million (30 per cent) were living in poverty once housing costs were considered.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t have enough food to eat. Official poverty figures are a measure of relative poverty – defined as anyone living in a household receiving less then 60 per cent of median UK household income. With the median household income at £28,400, it means someone could be receiving an income of £17,000 and still be considered to be living in ‘poverty’.
CHILDREN GOING HUNGRY
CLAIM: ‘In a wealthy society that claims to value compassion and humanity, how can we tolerate the injustice of millions of children going hungry?’ she asked.
REALITY: The report claims 4.1million children live in households which cannot afford the ‘full variety of foods needed for a healthy diet’ and that 2.5million live in ‘food insecure households’. This, it adds, means there are times when their household does not have enough money to acquire enough food or cannot always ensure a healthy diet. Which is clearly a concern but not necessarily the same as Thompson’s implication that millions of kids are permanently hungry. And it hardly fits in with our national obesity crisis.
CLIMATE CHANGE CATACLYSM
CLAIM: Asked about joining the Extinction Rebellion protests, she said: ‘We’ve been given 12 years to deal with our climate crisis and that’s a big race between consciousness and cataclysm, actually.’
REALITY: It seems she’s referring to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last November which was the result of its research into what action would be required for the world to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, compared with a previously suggested target of 2C.
The IPCC said that it would only be possible to achieve the lower figure ‘if global emissions start to fall well before 2030’. That’s not the same as there being 12 years to prevent a ‘cataclysm’.
Were temperatures allowed to rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels, according to the IPCC, there would be increased risk of droughts and heavy rainfall, and sea levels could be expected to rise by half a metre by 2100 – alarming yes, perhaps, but not a ‘cataclysm’.
ECO-ACTIVISTS IGNORED
CLAIM: ‘All activists on climate change have been asking for renewable energy, clean energy, for many, many years and we’ve been ignored,’ said Thompson.
REALITY: Countless wind farms and solar farms have been created across Britain in recent years.
Renewables accounted for 33 per cent of all electricity generated here last year – a figure reached before Extinction Rebellion was formed last November.
EMMA’S CARBON FOOTPRINT
CLAIM: Defending herself for flying from Los Angeles to join last week’s protests, she said: ‘It’s very difficult to do my job without flying, although I do fly a lot less than I did… to travel by aeroplane is impossible without causing damage to the planet… I am in the fortunate position of being able to offset my carbon footprint.’
REALITY: The International Council of Clean Transportation says the average transatlantic flight emits greenhouse gases equivalent to one tonne of CO2 per passenger. Given that Thompson was flying from further away, Los Angeles, you can add 50 per cent. And for premium seats, according to the ICCT, the emissions per passenger can be doubled.
Unless Thompson flew economy class, her single flight contributed the equivalent of three tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere. The average European is responsible for around ten tonnes of CO2 per year.
As for being ‘fortunate’ enough to offset her carbon footprint, she’s suggesting her wealth means she can invest in projects – such as renewable energy or tree-planting – which prevent or cancel out future carbon emissions. So it’s fine for the wealthy to fly everywhere, but the poor have to stay put.