Since it was first published in 1840, the British Medical Journal, now simply known as “The BMJ“, has been among the most influential and widely-read peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, famous for its publication of high-quality original research.
So it claims anyway.
It is a reputation that is quickly being trashed if the latest article by its Editor-in-Chief is anything to go by. Its title, ‘For the sake of both health and security: phase out fossil fuels‘, rather gives the game away that it is just yet another propaganda piece designed to scare us into giving up fossil fuels.
According to the article:
Summer is coming. While superpowers engage in forever wars; while nation states, rogue states and failed states flex their weaponry; while old alliances are abandoned and new ones forged; while our thoughts are consumed by security threats and our leaders dream of building military might; while the elite pray to new gods and dream of new worlds; while the growing ranks of undeserved and underserved poor people are too distracted, disempowered or disinformed to contemplate a better future; while the people tasked with securing our existence are conflicted by personal, corporate and national interests; and while we banish our greatest threat, the threat we must unite against, from our collective conscience, the forces of summer are breaching our planetary walls — and they bring annihilation.
Annihilation is a pretty strong word! The article then proceeds to back up these extraordinary claims with a handful of examples of ‘climate doom’, based on the flimsiest of evidence at best, cherry-picked and totally devoid of any context.
Indeed, it could have been written by the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt!
