George Orwell would have had the climate change crusade easily figured out.
Today's Ministry of Truth is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Established in 1988 by the United Nations, the IPCC is the source of most of the supposedly authoritative warnings that man-made climate change is destroying the planet. The truth is what the IPCC says it is, and anyone questioning it is automatically guilty of thoughtcrime, which in Newspeak is definitely doubleplusungood.
As for HateWeeks, these are held from time to time when officials of the Ministry of Truth organise conferences around the world where the participants can declare their hatred for carbon dioxide (CO2) as the enemy of the people. Subsidiary enemies such as oil companies or coal-fired power stations also come in for some of the hate.
Hate is indeed gathering momentum as big money refuses to finance any more doubleplusungood investment in such ventures after Extinction Rebellion and others issue their atrocity pamphlets. Understandably, nobody in big money would wish to be targeted for hate in the way poor old Emmanuel Goldstein was back in 1984. Perhaps he was the first man to burn fossil fuels. Maybe he even invented CO2?
As for Big Brother, he would have applauded how one British university got into the swing of things by holding a conference to discuss whether denial of climate change could be classified as a form of mental disorder. Perhaps they picked up the idea from the USSR.
Big Brother would also have been mightily impressed at the commitment of thousands of Little Sisters around the world. They think nothing of giving up their education in order to sniff out enemies of the people. He would have been immensely proud of how during hate week the most savage yells of all came from the schoolchildren.
And he would have been highly chuffed to read an advertisement by a German company in a British newspaper inviting children to save the planet by becoming "climate cops" who would spy on their parents, relatives, and neighbours and catch them out in "climate crimes" such as leaving the television on standby, putting hot food in the fridge or freezer, or failing to use low-energy lightbulbs.
Also impressed would have been Parsons, Winston Smith's neighbour in Orwell's celebrated novel 1984. Parsons was denounced by his own daughter. As Parsons told Smith, She listened at the keyhole, heard what I was saying and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh?
As for the memory holes, like the ones where poor old Winston Smith laboured night and day, they would also have to be in operation overtime. Among their biggest customers would be not only the IPCC itself, but also Al Gore (who did not quite make it to a big brother job but is nevertheless still watching and warning us).
He it was who needed a memory hole down which to throw information about periods of global warming and ice ages in days long gone by. This was because that information contradicted his graph in the shape of an ice hockey stick. The only way in which Mr Gore could perpetuate his view that two and two make five was – you guessed it – to consign to oblivion the data showing that two and two make four.
Unless you want to be guilty of thoughtcrime, you must follow Mr Gore's example - and that of woke journalists, IPCC activists, politicians, and others – and recognise the mutability of the past. Accordingly all the evidence of earlier floods, droughts, fires, cyclones, sea-level rises, heatwaves, ice ages, and melting ice caps throughout history must be consigned to the memory hole because they happened before anyone started burning much fossil fuel.
Also made to disappear must be all the evidence that the Earth somehow survived with very much higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere than there are now. Along with that must go all the historical data showing that high levels of CO2 sometimes coincide with global warming and sometimes with global cooling. And vice versa. In short, every piece of evidence or argument that could encourage thoughtcrime must be dropped into the memory hole.
As Big Brother so wisely asserted, Ignorance is strength. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. Not least of course, Who controls the past controls the future. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.
John Kane-Berman is a policy fellow at the IRR, a think-tank that promotes political and economic freedom. Readers are invited to take a stand with the IRR by clicking here or sending an SMS with your name to 32823. Each SMS costs R1. Ts and Cs apply.
