Why climate sceptics are winning

One man's 1,000-mile walk against catastrophism


Travis Cook is a man on a mission. Armed with just a sandwich board 
(‘There is no Climate Crisis’), an array of literature and formidable 
scientific knowledge, the 32-year-old former mechanical engineer is on a 
1000-mile walk around the UK to talk to people and try to dispel the 
climate gloom that we are customarily bombarded with. His is a message 
of climate realism (what the BBC might call ‘climate denialism’) and of 
hope. Far from being the lost cause this might once have seemed, he 
believes his message is beginning to be accepted.

‘I love it,’ he tells me of his daily interactions (he was at Hayling 
Island in Hampshire when we spoke). ‘It’s a good news message, so it’s 
easy to deliver, and it brings me joy.’ And though he does face regular 
abuse, this doesn’t bother him, ‘as long as they don’t touch me, I don’t 
mind.’

His views are outlined in a series of punchy but robust articles on his 
website and two books. In essence, he takes his cue from world-renowned 
authorities like William Happer and Richard Lindzen. Yes, increased CO₂ 
in the atmosphere does raise global temperatures, but only to a limited 
degree and with much of the effect being beneficial (evidence suggests 
that the Earth has become 5 per cent greener since 2000). Renewables are 
pretty much a waste of time, and Net Zero is a dangerous, unattainable 
fantasy. The whole debate is skewed by bias and saturated with 
unreliable, or even manipulated, data.

Cook is a veteran campaigner. He was heavily involved in the 
anti-lockdown movement, the ‘Great Re-opening’, which he says 
‘catapulted’ him to the forefront of activism. He started the Climate 
Con movement in 2022, first as an Instagram page, then a website, and 
now a walk. He claims 100,000 subscribers across various social media 
platforms. His supporters are assisting him on his walk, with offers of 
accommodation and support.

Cook is an optimist, a rational one, and describes the reception he has 
received as ‘mixed but leaning towards positive’. Women are worse than 
men, he says. So far, Essex has been the place most receptive to his 
message and Rye in Sussex has been the most aggressively hostile. He met 
people there who seemed to have a ‘demon within them’, he says, which 
recalls Jordan Peterson’s depiction of ultra-progressives as 
‘ideologically possessed’.

What is the evidence that we sceptics are winning? Despite a fresh wave 
of climate doom in the wake of the hot summer and forest fires, there is 
reason to believe that the public’s sympathy for and interest in climate 
apocalypse messages is waning. YouGov has the environment as a key issue 
for just 20 per cent of voters, down from 34 per cent five years ago. It 
ranked 18th in priority ahead of the local elections in May. Andy 
Burnham seems tepid on the subject and Ed Miliband has been moved to a 
place of greater safety. The whole narrative appears to have stalled.

The Greens have largely moved on to trans issues, the ‘Nordic doom 
goblin’ (thank you Rod Liddle), Greta Thunberg has turned her attention 
to Gaza, and even the permanently keffiya-clad Dale Vince appears to be 
swithering. The wind seems to be going out of the sails, or blades, of 
climate catastrophism. Will the great unlocking be followed by the great 
unravelling?

‘It looks promising,’ says Cook. He believes that the volume of climate 
change research has peaked and is now on the decline. ‘We have reached 
and passed ‘peak climate’. The whole climate crisis narrative could be 
gone ‘within five years’.’ Cook has never voted but is cautiously 
impressed with Reform (‘They have kept their promises when they have 
attained power’) and Restore (though he doubts they can ever be big 
enough to make a difference). He hopes they can sort out their 
differences and work together. ‘I haven’t given up on politics. If we 
do, it could be civil war.’

But how does he feel about the ultra-zealots, the ones that spew bile at 
his good news message, or the Just Stop Oil activists? ‘I don’t hate 
them, even when they are vicious or hateful. I just think their energy 
is being channelled in the wrong direction.’

Are they reachable? I tell Cook about my academic colleague with whom 
I’d been on reasonably friendly terms, who, astounded to hear I was a 
sceptic, said she believed in the climate crisis because of the 
‘thousands’ of scientists who endorsed it. I asked her to name one of 
these scientists. One. She couldn’t. And thus embarrassed (this took 
place in public), she never spoke to me again. I had made my point. But 
not a great outcome.

‘You were on the right track, probing to find the limits of their 
knowledge. But there is a small percentage that are hopeless, that you 
have to write off. But I’m not really targeting them. It’s the people in 
the middle, the not angry, not sad. For them, stay cool and be 
light-hearted.’

He then recalls a highlight of his tour, a spirited debate with three 
lads in Brighton during which he acquainted them with critical 
perspectives they had never encountered. ‘I met them later at the 
station,’ he says, ‘and they were completely changed. They had gone on a 
deep dive. I had had a profound effect on them.’ Fight the battles you 
can win. Shrug off the defeats, and rejoice at the victories. And enjoy 
the sunshine.


Philip Patrick