Beef production is responsible for 105kg of carbon emissions per 100g, whereas tofu produces 3.5kg per 100g. The obesity crisis and global heating are both reasons for more people to increase the plant-based foods they eat over steak and beef burgers. His close encounter with Covid-19 at the height of the pandemic caused him to declare himself “too fat” and to say he was adopting a healthy eating regime. Wouldn’t it be encouraging and popular for the prime minister instead to send a strong signal of support and declare himself to be a “proud tree-hugger”?īoris Johnson’s disparaging remarks about tofu and mung beans are also curious. And, in the Conservative manifesto, there is a pledge to plant 30 million trees per year. Up to 84 per cent of people agree that “a lot more trees should be planted”.
Despite the UK being one of the least wooded countries in Europe, there is clear support across the public for tree planting. Tree-hugger is defined in the dictionary as a “sometimes disparaging” term for “an advocate for the preservation of woodlands”. Using distancing language may serve to obstruct this purpose and play into the hands of the naysayers and deniers. After all, the green agenda needs to go mainstream to succeed. And yet, is this way of speaking helpful, considering the task the government faces? Ahead of the Glasgow climate summit, Boris Johnson and other ministers might want to reconsider whether this is the type of headline they really want. A few months later, when he addressed the UN, he argued against those who “say this is all green stuff from a bunch of tree-hugging tofu munchers and not suited to…politics”.Īnyone serious about the challenge of climate change would agree wholeheartedly with him that this requires political action.
Following the Climate Action Summit in December 2020, headlines focused on his insistence that climate change wasn’t just a concern for “tree-hugging, mung bean munching eco-freaks”. This is not the first time he has used this type of language. Unsurprisingly, the media picked up on the line.
Most recently, at Joe Biden’s climate summit, he was keen to stress that tackling the climate crisis is not a “politically correct green act of bunny-hugging”. Boris Johnson has a talent for grabbing the media’s attention with an eye catching turn of phrase.
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