Listening to Boris Johnson delivering his pearls of climate wisdom to the United Nations this week, Steerpike could not help but wonder from where the Prime Minister draws his eco-inspiration. Luckily a resurfaced clip this week serves as a useful reminder of the top scientific advisors the Tory leader once relied on: none other than discredited weatherman Piers Corbyn.
At one of his regular London Assembly grillings during his time as Mayor, Johnson was hauled up by Green AM Jenny Jones for citing Corbyn as his source for a Telegraph article casting doubts on global warming. The Old Etonian hailed the work of Corbyn – the brother of future Labour leader Jeremy – declaring his forecasts are right ’85 per cent of the time.’ Jones pointed out that Piers, best known for his anti-vaxx views, had never been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Johnson replied: ‘I was interested in some of the things – I didn’t know that, I’m interested in what you say about Piers Corbyn who is after all the brother of staunch Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and he’s got an interesting take on the weather we’ve been experiencing which I thought was worthy of note. ‘
‘I do remember 20 years ago when this whole thing’s kicked off we were told that there was this thing called global warming and there still is and that is the fundamental problem, the greenhouse effect… is I’m sure leading to the greater propensity for the planet to warm. However, the interesting thing is that may also be coinciding, and this is I think scientifically possible, with a solar minimum of the kind hat the planet has experienced before.’
Jones was not impressed by the response, interrupting to tell the floundering Johnson: ‘You’re giving me a headache. Mr Mayor this is garbage. You must understand that the overwhelming scientific consensus is that climate change is happening.’ Eight years on, and with Johnson having swapped City Hall for No. 10, the now-ennobled Green peer seems even less impressed with the incumbent PM. Responding to the clip, she sniffed on Twitter that: ‘this is the sort of “answer” we always had from Boris when he was Mayor of London. He seems even worse now he’s PM. Waffle and piffle and denial.’
Still, at least now there can be no confusion as to which side of the argument Boris is on eh?
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