George Monbiot's Blog

If this crucial circulation system shuts down, the civilisational impacts will be irreversible. So why isn’t it a top priority?

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd April 2026

The poor and middle pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the very rich pay lawyers – and the ultra-rich pay politicians. It’s not an original remark, but it bears repeating until everyone has heard it. The more money billionaires accumulate, the greater their control of the political system – which m...

Thanks to Trump, people around the world are scrambing to get out of fossil fuels.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 18th April 2026

Donald Trump has done more to accelerate the energy transition than anyone else alive. Fossil fuel companies bankrolled his presidential campaign to stop the transition in its tracks. But when you back a volatile narcissist, unable to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time, you shouldn’t expect to control the outcome.

It’s not tha...

How the deregulation of waste disposal has turned this country into a magnet for the mafia.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 1st April 2026

This country’s a dump. I don’t mean that metaphorically. I mean it literally. From the point of view of criminal waste gangs, it is one big potential landfill. The chances of being caught range between minimal and nonexistent, and the penalties are mostly laughable. Successive governments have given criminals a licence to print money.

Cascading failure across the global food system is a real and horrific possibility, which most governments are doing nothing to avert.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 25th March 2026

The fate of environmentalists is to spend their lives trying not to be proved right. Vindication is what we dread. But there’s one threat that haunts me more than any other: the collapse of the global food system. We cannot predict what the immediate trigger might be. But the war with Iran is ...

By unhooking ourselves from fossil fuels, we release ourselves from a world of harm.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 19th March 2026

I realise this is a serious breach of etiquette. But could we perhaps abandon good manners and contextualise Donald Trump’s attack on Iran? The intense western interest in the Middle East and west and central Asia, sustained for more than a century, and the endless attempts by foreign governments to shape and control these regions, are not ra...

If it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between fossil-fuel lobbyists and the billionaire press, that’s because there isn’t one.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 13th March 2026

These are burning, smoking lies. As oil and gas prices soar, thanks to the US and Israel’s attack on Iran, the UK’s opponents of climate policy become even shriller. Rightwing politicians, Tufton Street junktanks and the billionaire press tell us our energy security will be enhanced and our b...

Today’s cruel treatment of Muslims and immigrants was originally crafted as an attack on Jews.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 5th March 2026

Our political memory fails us. We treat government policies as if we’re seeing them for the very first time. But much of what appears to be novel has deep historical roots. If we fail to understand those roots and the soil in which they grow, we will fail to resist the assaults on our humanity.

The home secretary’s new attack on t...

The Green Party is becoming everything you might have wanted Labour to be.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 25th February 2026

NB: This article was published before the by-election it refers to. The Greens won by a mile.  

Every barb Labour has directed at the Greens can now be returned with interest. “It’s a wasted vote.” “Do you want to see Reform in power?” New polling ahead of the crucial Gorton and Denton byelection this week, while by no means decisive, puts the G...

Peter Mandelson was not one bad apple: he was brought in repeatedly by governments to do their dirty work.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  10th February 2026

History is being rewritten. The story we are told is that an evil man called Peter Mandelson, pursuing his own interests, went rogue to collaborate with a serial abuser of girls and women, undermining the good work of people seeking to defend the public interest. All this is true. But – and I fear many will find this...

Here is the real reason why Keir Starmer’s government refuses to let us have a fair electoral system.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 4th February 2026

Don’t let the Labour party say one more word about “splitting the vote”, in the forthcoming byelection or at any other time. With proportional representation, no one would ever need to worry about splitting the vote again. No one would need to choose the lesser evil to keep the greater evil out of office. We could vote for ...