Environment Minister Bans Climate Change Ads

10/02/2009 by Stew.

Northern Ireland’s Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has blocked a government advertising campaign on climate change.

In an extraordinary move, Wilson claimed the adverts were part of an “insidious propaganda campaign”.

The adverts called for people to save electricity,both cutting the costs of their bills and helping the environment, as well as being less dependent on fossil fuels. Wilson argued that they were “giving people the impression that by turning off the standby light on their TV they could save the world from melting glaciers and being submerged in 40ft of water”, saying he had written to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to say that the advertising campaign Act on CO2 “was not welcome”. He explained that he did not believe in its message that “man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of climate change” and that the campaign was contrary to his personal views.

The Green party claim his opinions on climate change has made a “a laughing stock out of Northern Ireland” and have called for his resignation. Friends of the Earth NI director John Woods said: “It’s bad enough that we have an environment minister who doesn’t accept that human activity is driving climate change, but trying to block advice to people on how they can help tackle it is completely irresponsible. He went on to say “The reality is that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists believe that our activities are causing global warming and that urgent action is needed to tackle it.”

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