Not Zero: How an Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won't Even Save the Planet)

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Clark wrote an article for the Spectatorwhere he argued that if governments look at ways of decreasing single-use plastic bags then they should also look at other materials and ‘bags for life’ and said that environment policymaking “tends to dart between fashionable issues, ignoring complexities”. 77 Ross Clark. “ The great plastic panic,” Spectator, January 20, 2019. Archived April 3, 2020. Archived .pdf on file atDeSmog. How to Label a Goat: The Silly Rules and Regulations That Are Strangling Britain, Harriman House, 2007

In an article for the Spectator, Clark stated that he had investments in both the oil industry and renewable energy companies. 9 Ross Clark. “ New York’s fight against the oil giants is political posturing at its worst,” Spectator, January 11, 2018. Archived April 3, 2020. Archived .pdf on file atDeSmog. Wind turbines are great galumphing things that despoil Britain’s rural landscapes, pummel the prices of nearby houses and plague residents with terrible noise and light pollution […] Yet the blind insistence of eco-zealots on more and more wind power – and the weakness of our Prime Minister in potentially bowing to their demands – means we risk pursuing such a barmy policy”. In an article titled “Good news: we now have until 2030 to save the Earth”, Clark argued that IPCC reports in 2018, which told governments they had 12 years to avert climate catastrophe, were a good sign, as previous organisations had given a stricter deadline: 18 Ross Clark. “ Good news: we now have until 2030 to save the earth,” Spectator, October 8, 2019. Archived April 3, 2020. Archived .pdf on file atDeSmog.Clark continued: “In the minds of Deben [chair of the government’s Climate Change Committee], Sharma and others, only one thing seems to matter: lowering Britain’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. All other considerations, such as jobs and national prosperity, seem to go out of the window.” Clark describeda short-lived interview he had with former US Vice President Al Gore who was in the UK to promote his documentary An Inconvenient Sequel. Upon Clark questioning how big of a problem climate change is, Al Gore called him a “denier”. In the article Clark describes Gore as “an obstacle to serious debate”. 81 Ross Clark. “ Question Al Gore on climate change and he’ll call you a ‘denier’,” Spectator, August 20, 2017. Archived April 4, 2020. Archived .pdf on file atDeSmog. Clark also criticised the “hysteria and doom-mongering” surrounding the climate change debate, before claiming: “If you want to reach net zero in the next few years through the curtailment of lifestyles, you are not going to achieve it without returning society to a pre-industrial level of subsistence”.

Clark, Ross (2017). War Against Cash: the plot to empty your wallet and own your financial future - and why you must fight it. Harriman House. ISBN 978-0857196255. Extinction Rebellion is quite different in that it openly advocates lower living standards. It actively wants to reverse economic growth. It is, as a result, an indulgence on the part of people who feel divorced from economic forces and who don’t feel they need to engage with what would be the realities of a shrinking economy: mass unemployment and millions struggling to feed and clothe their families.”

Reason Foundation (6 November 2013). "Newsday's Lane Filler and The Times' Ross Clark Win Reason Foundation's Bastiat Prize". Reason Foundation. The article contains excerpts from Clark’s upcoming anti-net zero book. In one extract, Clark suggested “there might even be some benefits from a warming climate […] such as the ability to grow a richer variety of crops in Britain, but this tended to go missing from the reporting”. Clark, Ross (2009). The Road to Southend Pier: One man's struggle against the Surveillance Society (2nded.). Encounter Books. ISBN 978-1594032486. Clark wrote an article for The Telegraph questioning the costs of the government’s decarbonisation policies, intended to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Arguing that net zero “could yet prove a devastating hostage to fortune,” Clark said: “Voters, aligned in principle with climate campaigners, may well have a different view when they realise they could end up paying many thousands of pounds, or even face losing their homes.” 46 Ross Clark. “ Net Zero’s spiralling costs will hit the poorest hardest,” The Telegraph, April 5, 2021. Archived April 6, 2021 . Archive URL: https://archive.vn/OyMC3

Clark wrote that despite concerns from scientists about continued bleaching events affecting the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), a report from the Australian Institute of Marine Science “reveals that coral cover has not only recovered but across two-thirds of the reef it is now at its highest level in 36 years of observations“. Clark wrote that “the environmental movement can [not] quite bring itself to celebrate the result of the latest survey”, and that media coverage of the report was “an object lesson in how environmental news is driven only by misery”. This was later resharedby the Global Warming Policy Foundation. 86 Ross Clark. “ Why don’t we hear about the beneficial side of Climate Change?” Global Warming Policy Foundation, November 29, 2014. Archived April 4, 2020. Archive URL: http://archive.fo/eRwDl In a Spectator column, Clark described the various tree planting pledges by British political parties as looking like a “Monty Python sketch”. 64 Ross Clark. “ This manic tree-planting contest has gotten out of hand,” Spectator, November 28, 2019. Archived April 3, 2020. Archived .pdf on file atDeSmog. He wrote: “Homeowners face being thrown to the wolves to meet these ill-thought-out targets — spending hard-earned savings on refurbishments that may or may not cut carbon emissions,” adding: “Indeed, the only certainty is these new rules will make a lot of Britain’s homeowners much poorer.”In a Spectator column, Clark wrote about how Extinction Rebellion have been given an “easy ride” by the government and commentators, and that their protests were “attempting to bypass democracy”. 29 Ross Clark. “ Extinction Rebellion shouldn’t be given such an easy ride,” Spectator, April 17, 2019. Archived April 3, 2020. Archived .pdf on file atDeSmog.