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James O’Brien reacts to ‘Europe’s worst ever heatwave’ as hospitals in England declare ‘critical incidents’ with IT equipment and machinery failing in the heat. James asks why there is a ‘widespread refusal’ to understand that this is now ‘our new normal’. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #jamesobrien #uknews #ukheatwave #debate #news #netzero #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
It's three minutes after ten. You're listening to James O'Brien on LBC
0:04
Here's a headline. Experts blame climate crisis for Western Europe's worst ever heatwave
0:10
I'll read you a little more of the story. The heatwave in Western Europe is the most severe and widespread ever
0:15
and only possible because of the climate crisis driven by fossil fuel burning
0:19
scientists said today. Almost half of Europe's 850 largest cities are also suffering their worst ever heat stress
0:27
It's a combination of temperature and humidity. they have found, with muggier conditions
0:32
meaning that sweating is less effective at cooling the body, at which point everybody goes
0:36
oh, that's why I can't sleep at the moment. And then there's a lot more detail
0:43
and a lot more science, if you like, a lot more statistics
0:47
It's the World Weather Attribution Consortium that shows how rapidly extreme heat is worsening
0:53
as carbon pollution piles up in the atmosphere. there's two big stories in the news today one obviously i just shared with you and the other
1:05
you'll be aware of involves the king's finances and the potentially slightly tricky decision to
1:10
spend hundreds of millions of pounds doing up buck house and they're not actually living in it
1:14
the first monarch i think since queen victoria who won't be living in buckingham palace despite
1:19
these very necessary and very extensive renovations. And I break up today
1:26
I'm off for the next couple of weeks, so I find my brain probably beginning to shut down slightly
1:32
But these are both traditionally subjects that I file under massively important
1:39
but not necessarily phone-ins. Do you see what I mean? I can sit here and I hope be very entertaining
1:45
and informative on both subjects. but I don't know that I've ever absolutely nailed the right question
1:53
when it comes to the very existence of the royal family. Can I do a topic? Would that be too meta
1:58
Why have I never done a really good phone-in on whether or not we should have a royal family
2:02
Is it because it just gets bogged down in predictable positions and stereotypes
2:06
Is it because I'm not a very good radio presenter? Perish the thought
2:10
And I feel that this week we've flirted. I feel like Icarus. but I've flown a bit too close to the sun if you pardon the ogy and yesterday that conversation
2:23
we had about what should we be doing differently I felt it only really kicked off about 10 to 11
2:27
and that must be my fault it's tempting to blame you but it means I didn't quite get you in the
2:33
place that we all needed to be in until about half past 10 despite a 20 minute monologue or maybe you
2:39
needed the 20 minute monologue um to percolate if you like through your own thinking and your
2:44
own consciousness and you didn't find yourself having much of interest to say until a little
2:49
bit later in the air so we hit 11 o'clock we could have carried on for another hour the switchboard
2:52
was full of people with interesting things to say about why we aren't coping what we would do better
2:58
to cope better with the with the heat um and it can historically be the same with the royal family
3:06
And you know I'm also fascinated by what word are we going to use
3:11
What word are we going to use? Because some of the phrases that we use, some of the phrases that I use
3:15
some of the phrases that I've introduced you to, are unhelpful in the great scheme of things
3:21
The furiously hard of thinking is one of my favourites. But the people who believe that they know better than the scientists
3:28
or the people who believe that their favourite Daily Mail columnist somehow knows better than 99 plus percent of all the qualified people on the planet And it not like Brexit really And that single element of it is like Brexit
3:44
But the complications of understanding what the European Union is all about
3:51
are much greater than the complications of understanding the relationship between carbon-based pollution and a heating planet
3:58
And it's really not that difficult to grasp. and yet there was a widespread refusal to grasp it
4:05
Lots and lots of people fell for... Would you agree with me that the people who you might once have expected
4:11
to be poo-pooing climate science have now decided to attack children instead for being too hot
4:17
Do you see what I mean? It's like the movement of the, shall we say, the fatally incurious
4:23
rather than the furiously hard of thinking because some of these people are perfectly capable of thinking
4:28
they just choose not to. So you move from, oh, I don't know about climate science
4:32
it's all, I mean, it was very hot in 1976. And that obviously doesn't hold water as an argument
4:38
against decades of observable science. But instead, rather than thinking about it
4:43
or indeed acknowledging the mistake, instead you move effortlessly to blaming children for being too hot
4:49
You know, they're having to shut hospitals because the machines don't work in this heat
4:54
And yet it's not that hard to find people on social media insisting that the young today aren't resilient enough
5:01
because they're not capable... Usually, in air-conditioned television and radio studios or air-conditioned newspaper offices
5:09
insisting that they shouldn't be shutting the schools or that children today aren't tough enough
5:14
despite the fact that hospitals in England are declaring critical incidents because radiotherapy machines, scanners, cooling units
5:21
and IT systems are failing. Under my glorious rule, it will be compulsory
5:26
For anybody in this line of work who opines about the resilience of children from an air-conditioned studio to conduct the next time we have the hottest day in history
5:36
they have to conduct their entire programme from the middle of Trafalgar Square with no shade
5:41
Or from the 14th floor of a tower block with no lift
5:45
Or just from a school with no air conditioning. And let's see how I'd be faring after three hours in the kind of heat that I've endured in every other aspect of my life
5:55
but which I don't have to endure while I'm actually at work
5:59
I mean, it's comical, right? But also dangerous, like almost all of the opinions held by these people
6:05
Because it's always hand in hand, isn't it? It's Brexit, it's Johnson, it's Trump, it's climate change
6:11
It's always going hand in hand. And the question I really want to ask you, really
6:17
is whether or not it's dead now. Because they've tried to demonise net zero
6:22
They're trying very, very hard to demonise net zero. There is currently a conference unfolding in London
6:28
with a sort of who's who of the professionally ignorant, opining about everything from two-tier policing
6:35
which of course doesn't exist, right through to net zero, demonising Ed Miliband, funded by Donald Trump donors
6:42
funded by fossil fuel companies. I mean, it's not even hiding. It's not like Tufton Street where they don't declare
6:49
Who is paying them to come on radio and television programmes and argue against climate science
6:54
It's literally published who funds them, and here we are, still reporting it in some corners of the media with a straight face
7:03
Has it failed? Even though Net Zero, I told you a while ago
7:10
they were going to try and turn it into the next Brexit. They trying really hard to turn it into the next Brexit I don know whether Nigel Farage has been given million by fossil fuel companies or by 10 fossil fuel companies We never know who else may have given him million
7:24
for undisclosed reasons, because he won't tell us about the money. We only know about the £5 million he took from
7:32
a Thai-based billionaire because of journalism, and he doesn't think that's any of your business
7:37
So you never know, really, with some characters, how much money they've squirreled away from vested interests
7:44
That's why they squirreled it away, I suppose. But is it going to fail simply because of the weather
7:51
You know the party's final most terrible command? That we ignore the evidence of our own eyes and ears
7:58
And we sit here, some of us sit here marvelling at how others can ignore the evidence of their own eyes and ears
8:06
Right? and others sit here ignoring the evidence of their own eyes and ears
8:10
It's a fairly binary divide. But can we actually ignore the evidence of our thermometers
8:17
Can we actually ignore the evidence? I don't really see. I haven't actually looked at what the Daily Mail columnists have done today
8:23
but I imagine one of them will be sort of going on about strawberry mivvies
8:27
or complaining that children aren't resilient. Actually, I can't be bothered. I'll have a look later
8:31
that idea that the power of propaganda is so great that it can persuade populations to vote to become the first in history
8:42
to impose economic sanctions on itself but you can persuade people that a Ukrainian has set fire to Keir Starmer's old house
8:51
because he wasn't paid for his prostitution services there's so many examples of people being persuaded by
8:58
the engines of propaganda to believe things that are obviously not true
9:04
that it was quite easy until relatively recently to get very depressed about net zero and climate change
9:11
And they're still trying. Make no mistake, they're absolutely pushing the idea
9:17
that we shouldn't be doing this. And there are some arguments about pragmatism
9:20
There's no argument about whether the world should be pushing towards net zero. There are some pragmatic and practical arguments
9:26
about whether the United Kingdom should be taking quite such a leading role
9:29
and I get that. But the opposite of drill, baby, drill is shill, baby, shill
9:35
If you are, I mean, literally, or rather the cousin, the twin brother of drill, baby, Bill
9:40
drill, baby, drill is shill, baby, shill. You are lying to the public. It's insane to argue that we should be putting more carbon into the atmosphere
9:49
or that by doing so we would somehow improve the state of our country
9:54
But is it going to work? And why do you think it is
10:00
Can we be a bit more optimistic today? Do you think? Can we say that even if you are programmed
10:08
to ignore the evidence of your own eyes and ears, can we say with some confidence
10:15
that this is not going to work, that we are now approaching a point
10:23
where everybody is going to have to acknowledge just the science, the reality
10:29
I mean, in some ways, I've got two questions. I'm fascinated by the psychology of people who don't understand things
10:39
or who insist that they don't understand things. How on earth can you be persuaded that this is not a consequence
10:44
of all the fossil fuels that we're pumping into the atmosphere? I used to hear from people in that category quite often
10:50
Now they as rare as hen teeth and they always mad So I mean that and I not pulling my punches or being kind or unkind They are absolutely bonkers The idea that you can look at all of the science and with a GCSE in domestic science
11:06
you can conclude that you know more than all of the scientists do
11:11
And of course, if you're getting paid for that, then good luck to you. You know, your kids need shoes
11:15
You've sold your soul. If you're not even getting paid for it, if you're just going on social media
11:20
you're just phoning up radio shows to insist that you know better than all the scientists do
11:25
A, I suppose it's a bit Brexity, and B, I think you're on a hiding to nothing
11:30
Richard Tice does it, I think. Richard Tice has the brains of a pillow
11:36
That much is clear. All these Nepo babies surrounding Farage who have either given him money in return for a job
11:42
or are just expounding positions that are ridiculous. I don't think the net zero is going to land
11:50
I think it's going to fail I think the attempts to rubbish it
11:55
to demonise it, to denigrate it to undermine it are just going to be undermined by days like today
12:00
and not just the one-offs but the fact that this is as one newspaper's front page reminded us yesterday
12:07
this is the new normal listen, as Craig points out it's 22 years, it's 20 odd years too late
12:14
but it's better late than never it is simply the case that you can't really argue against this science anymore
12:22
unless you are an obvious idiot. So that's the question, really. That's where I'd like to encounter some optimism today
12:31
Do you think, and of course you're more than welcome to be pessimistic, but do you think that the current crisis right across Europe
12:40
is going to provide the political appetite needed for profound, prolonged and meaningful change
12:50
Because the engines or the tanks parked on our lawns are powerful and exceedingly well funded
12:58
but I think they might be increasingly impotent. I haven't got a lot of precedent for that
13:04
because they normally win. Those tanks, those vested interests, those shills, those client journalists
13:12
those propagandists, those lobby groups, masquerading as think tanks, they normally win. They've won on immigration, for example, which is
13:20
largely designed to distract you from the real reasons for inequality. They've won on Brexit
13:24
They've won on tax issues. They've won on wealth distribution, poverty being the fault of the poor
13:32
not the... They've won on almost every front. I think today they might lose this one
13:37
they might lose this one 0345 6060 973 is the number that you need
13:45
just to tell me whether or not you think that this time
13:49
this weather is just going to change everything 0345 6060 973 that this
13:57
weather is going to change everything and if you've been waiting for this moment
14:03
just give me a shout on why you welcome it, or whether you welcome it
14:09
You've been waiting for this moment. An epic failure of journalism, but of course journalism is bought and sold in this country
14:17
just as politicians, some politicians are. How do you greet the relationship
14:23
between the public discourse and this extreme, this excessive, this extraordinary weather
14:29
Is it over? 0345 6060 973 is the number. that you need it
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