The spectre of a 4°C warmer world, with alligators basking off the coast of Sweden, a vast desert surrounding the Mediterranean and a largely uninhabitable mainland Europe, is to be presented to EU member states by foreign secretary David Miliband.This is part of a "diplomatic push" by Britain to persuade rich countries to put climate change at the top of their agendas. Thus Miliband will address French, Swedish and Danish foreign ministries in the next 48 hours.
Then, heedless of the carbon footprint, he travels to New York where he will meet foreign ministers from other rich countries next week to hammer out details of a major treaty on global warming ahead of UN talks in Thailand, which will conclude at a crucial summit in December in Copenhagen.
A Foreign Office spokesman said using powerful climate change imagery to concentrate official minds was justifiable because the worldwide geopolitical implications of profound climate change were so enormous.
Meanwhile, a senior executive of Newcastle-based Grainger plc, Tim Nicholson, has claimed he was unfairly dismissed because his views on the environment conflicted with other managers' "contempt for the need to cut carbon emissions".
In the first case of its kind, an employment tribunal decided that Nicholson had views amounting to a "philosophical belief in climate change", allowing him the same legal protection against discrimination as religious beliefs.
We are told that Judge David Sneath said at the employment tribunal: "[Nicholson] has certain views about climate change and acts upon those views in the way in which he leads his life. In my judgment his belief goes beyond a mere opinion."
The decision comes two years after the law on religious discrimination was changed so that beliefs no longer had to be "similar" to religious faith to receive protection in the workplace. Under the new law "philosophical belief" is protected by the law alongside religious belief if it passes a legal test requiring it to be cogent, serious and "worthy of respect in a democratic society".
Nicholson's lawyer said that the case reflected a necessary clarification of the law that would affect large numbers of employees.
"This is a case that will clarify the law for the ever-increasing numbers of people who take a philosophical stance on the environment and climate change, and who lead their lives according to those principles", said Shah Qureshi, head of employment law at solicitors Bindmans.
"These are often deeply held views based on the premise that without change humanity will suffer … people should be able to express such views without fear of retribution or discrimination."
Now then, I have this "philosophical belief" that warmists are the spawn of the devil, that their atheist creed is deeply offensive, that they should be banned from speaking in public about their religion, and that the sinister rituals which accompany their religion should be practiced only in private and then only between consenting adults.
Can I have a job please?
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