“climate change is a threat to civilisation..”

BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport notes on his blog that before becoming the ultra-sceptical, and conspiratorial, new Environment Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson was signing Early Day Motions in the House of Commons like this one from Frank Field in Feb 2008.

“The EDM expresses concern at the “alarming rise in deforestation rates in the Amazon rainforest over recent months” and ” further notes that deforestation already accounts for 20 per cent. of global carbon dioxide emissions each year and that curbing deforestation is one of the single most effective ways of halting catastrophic climate change”. And I thought Sammy didn’t believe in this stuff and nonsense…”

Indeed. It’s not the only example, either. There’s EDM 178 from Michael Meacher back in May 2005, calling for a Climate Change Bill, signed by, among many others, Sammy Wilson, MP.

That this House agrees with the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser that climate change is a threat to civilisation;

As the Parliament website states about EDMs

..very few EDMs are actually debated. Instead, they are used for reasons such as publicising the views of individual MPs, drawing attention to specific events or campaigns, and demonstrating the extent of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view.


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