The triumph of green ideology within our institutions, corporations and public life is staggering. Notions that would have once been confined to meetings in the back of a Brighton bookshop are now the common coin of government, big business and, of course, the cultural elites. All of them now seem to agree that cheap and plentiful energy is bad, that the Industrial Revolution was our original sin, and that eco-austerity is what our ailing nation needs.
But the eco-takeover of Britain’s armed forces is particularly odd. In 2021, the Ministry of Defence published its ‘Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach’, laying out its plans to help the government hit net zero by 2050. The Royal Air Force wants to hit net zero by 2040, though it has so far failed to explain how. And now we hear that the Royal Navy is sending sailors on courses about climate change.
The Telegraph reports that the navy is even considering forcing personnel to attend these online lessons, which offer a ‘comprehensive overview on the science behind climate change and most importantly its relevance to defence’, according to a leaked briefing paper. There’s also talk of paying for sailors to do postgraduate courses about global warming and giving environmental scientists space on warships to do their research.
A few scientists on deck, and a few sailors packed off to university, might not be anything to get upset about. But you can’t help but wonder why the navy – and the armed forces more broadly – is expending so much time, energy and resources worrying about climate change, perhaps even forcing its recruits to sit through an entire online course on the subject. Particularly at a time when the personnel and resources the armed forces have at their disposal is historically low and the threat of conflict on the world’s stage is perilously high.
Much of this comes down to the government’s legal commitment to net zero, of course. According to official figures, defence accounts for 50 per cent of central government’s emissions. And so the armed forces are under particular pressure to slash theirs, starting with their domestic estate. But military top brass also appear to be pretty zealous converts to net zero. ‘Reducing our dependency on fossil fuels wherever possible will prove both the right thing to do and the necessary thing to do’, said Lt Gen Richard Nugee in 2021, upon the launch of the ‘Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach’.
There is much talk in defence circles about the pressing need to adapt, in terms of hardware and strategy, to a changing climate. Which is fair enough. But it hardly follows that the armed forces – whose primary interest lies in being as well-trained, well-equipped and efficient as possible – should be ‘using algae, alcohol and household waste to power aircraft’, in the case of the RAF, or trialling new hybrid patrol vehicles, in the case of the Army. Surely the best kit is just the best kit?
Thankfully, they haven’t gone full Greta. Policymakers and defence chiefs are keen to stress that their ‘green transition’ must not compromise military capability. As Nugee told the House of Commons Defence Committee in 2022: ‘We will not have electric tanks, with current technology, and we still need tanks, as has been proved in Ukraine. There is only so far that we can go.’ But in these uncertain times you’d think that obsessive greenism was a luxury that the armed forces – not to mention the entire British state – can no longer afford. At best, it is a colossal waste of everyone’s time.
The green (and woke) capture of so many institutions speaks to something quite deep, I think. Namely, a chronic inability among the pillars of the old establishment to stand up for themselves, to articulate why they are a good or necessary force in the world. And so they latch on to any new-establishment idea going, be that net zero or Critical Race Theory, to absolve themselves of past sins and renew their flagging sense of mission. Even if doing so makes no sense and arguably detracts from what it is they are actually supposed to be doing.
Well, in pursuit of easy virtue you can end up looking ridiculous. Indeed, you can end up hosting online climate courses and trying to crack algae-fuelled aviation, all while the world is in flames around us.
The strange eco-takeover of Britain’s armed forces
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15.02.2024
The triumph of green ideology within our institutions, corporations and public life is staggering. Notions that would have once been confined to meetings in the back of a Brighton bookshop are now the common coin of government, big business and, of course, the cultural elites. All of them now seem to agree that cheap and plentiful energy is bad, that the Industrial Revolution was our original sin, and that eco-austerity is what our ailing nation needs.
But the eco-takeover of Britain’s armed forces is particularly odd. In 2021, the Ministry of Defence published its ‘Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach’, laying out its plans to help the government hit net zero by 2050. The Royal Air Force wants to hit net zero by 2040, though it has so far failed to explain how. And now we hear that the Royal Navy is sending sailors on courses about climate change.
The Telegraph reports that the navy is even considering forcing personnel to attend these online lessons, which offer a ‘comprehensive overview on the science behind........
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