In recent years, growing national and international networks are challenging the two dominant ‘emergency’ narratives that relate to the Covid pandemic and Climate Change.

It was the experience of Covid, and the co-ordinated global response that involved suppression of the virus’s laboratory origins, fast-tracking of mRNA vaccines, lockdowns, and neglect of the most vulnerable – all of which contradicted scientific evidence and proven effective responses – that led to alarm over the consolidation of emergency powers within groups of unelected bureaucrats. Whilst this kind of subterfuge has characterized the climate issue for decades, the Covid-led awakening brought many to question the origins and reality of the ‘climate emergency’.

Peter Taylor – an independent advisor, consultant and scientific expert on environmental issues – has long been asked for updates on his ground-breaking book, Chill: A Reassessment of Global Warming Theory (2009). Here he responds with a series of challenging and revealing essays. His treatment is based on published and peer-reviewed science as well as first-hand research in the field – visiting research labs and asking direct questions. His startling conclusions reveal that the science is far from ‘settled’. Perhaps worse, discussion is no longer possible – the branding of heretics as ‘deniers’ has become commonplace. But now the fight-back has begun, and this book provides scientific ammunition for anyone who cares about societal freedoms.

PETER TAYLOR has two Oxford degrees but left academia in 1978 and – ‘blessed with companions of a similar mind’ – set up operations to clean the oceans and atmosphere. His organization – the Oxford-based Political Ecology Research Group (1976–1992) worked for citizens’ initiatives against dangerous developments – some were stopped, like the Plutonium Economy, the dumping of nuclear waste at sea and Acid Rain. Other toxic policies were transformed through the instigation of Clean Production Strategies. He became an analyst of environmental science, and as an activist got to know the nodal points of influence of what he called ‘a long game through many decades’. He is a strong believer in the power of small groups of committed people and is a long-standing member of the California-based Environmental Studies Institute, a founding member of Cambrian Wildwood, a founding member and Associate of the Wildland Research Institute at Leeds University, and founding member of the Institute for Life-based Architecture in Germany.

He has children and grandchildren – they are his ‘skin in the game’ – and is the author of Chill: A Reassessment of Global Warming Theory, numerous scientific papers on pollution, several books on conservation including Beyond Conservation and The Spirit of Rewilding, and an autobiography, Shiva’s Rainbow.