Image by Chris LeBoutillier.
It’s almost a foregone conclusion that UK billionaire Chris Hohn has not fallen for one of Donald Trump’s cons, like investing in a stupid coin that says, ‘fight, fight, fight’. OMG, what’s with these billionaire suck-ups that fall for Trump’s juvenile gold bricks, only fitting for The Gong Show (1976-80).
A recent interview of billionaire Chris Hohn in The Times d/d August 8, 2026, Chris Hohn, Britain’s Greenest Billionaire: “It’s Decarbonize or Die” explains his understanding of the climate crisis. And he puts his money where his mouth is by topping “The Times’ Giving List” with donations of £1.4 billion ($1.9B) for the environment as well as other social welfare causes.
Hohn’s opening statements: “It is blindingly obvious that the world is getting warmer. Any idiot can see that the climate has changed and climate change is accelerating. Anybody who doesn’t look at the science is willfully ignorant.” Probably another reason why he likely doesn’t cater to Trump’s “money for favors” schemes. It’s what the presidency is all about? Umm, sure!
Hohn is the founder of TCI Fund Management, £60 billion in assets. He’s likely the first, and maybe only, billionaire to publicly admit we’ve screwed up the climate system, badly!
He’s a decarbonizing fanatic: “If you aren’t decarbonizing your business, you could go out of business. Some car manufacturers are still only making the internal combustion engine — and they will go to the death making the internal combustion engine. In Europe when that’s banned, which is just a matter of time, then you’ll be bankrupt. If you’re a shareholder in that car company, you should be encouraging and pressuring the management to wake up and smell the coffee.”
Meanwhile, the UK’s Labor Party leader, who is now Prime Minister Andy Burnham, effective July 20, 2026, has already decided (most likely) to open drilling in the North Sea. His new energy secretary indicating they might need to “relax some net-zero targets” to get the job done with finances tight, and so forth??? Yet, interestingly, confusingly, since taking power in 2024, the Labour Party introduced a wide range of energy policies supporting renewable energy development and grid infrastructure updates, as well as restrictions on new oil and gas drilling.
According to LBC News: “Mr. Burnham has faced pressure from Washington DC to approve drilling in the North Sea. US president Donald Trump claimed that not allowing new drilling would leave the UK as a ‘bankrupt country’ but added he thought Mr. Burnham was going to open up oil and gas fields.”
And, it seems like only yesterday that The Times exposed the previous PM Starmer’s administration of suppressing an absolutely devastating report by the combined efforts of the UK military, aka: His Majesty’s Armed Forces and intelligence units MI5, MI6, stating that climate change’s destruction of ecosystems was leading to (1) severe food shortages (2) mass migrations and (3) dangerous geopolitical conflicts, within the next five years. This shockingly short timeline to some level of cataclysmic purgatory should be ringing bells on the town square and activating ear-screeching alarms throughout the land. See- The Most Shocking Climate News of 2026.
However, with that redlight warning now in the public domain, the authorities are looking in the opposite direction, away from a “baked-in UK” to counteract the punishing extreme heat by questionably increasing the impact of CO2 on global warming via drilling in the North Sea; it’ll crank up heat even more. It’s complicated!
Yet the world community sees it differently, Covering Climate Now’s 89 Percent Project spotlights the reality that 80 to 89 percent of the world’s people want their governments to take stronger climate action (a tipoff for aspiring political campaigns). “A representative survey across 125 countries, interviewing nearly 130,000 individuals’ findings reveal widespread support for climate action. Notably, 69% of the global population expresses a willingness to contribute 1% of their personal income, 86% endorse pro-climate social norms and 89% demand intensified political action.” (Globally Representative Evidence on the Actual and Perceived Support for Climate Action, Nature Climate Change, February 9, 2024)
Alas, seventy-five percent (75%) of England and all (100%) of Wales are in severe drought, parched as far as the eye can see. Is there anybody in the world who doesn’t understand the relationship between excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) CO2 and global warming? Just wondering?
Decarbonize or Die
In stark contrast to the jaw-dropping insanity of Hohn’s home government possibly cranking up North Sea oil targets, especially in the context of an ecosystem-killer called ‘heat’ on the loose throughout the countryside, Hohn is adamant that the drive for Net Zero is the right course: “It is a case of decarbonize or die,’ he says, ’If you don’t embrace green technologies, there will be no jobs because that’s the future. All these people who say we can’t afford net zero — they’re completely misunderstanding the gravity of the situation. In fact, it’s the opposite. You can’t afford not to act because of the impact on food prices and energy prices. The more we use fossil fuels, the more it will drive up prices,” Ibid.
Casting a dark shadow over the entire global warming complex, most (almost all) of the 195 governments that firmly committed to cut CO2 emissions by 30-50% by 2030 at the landmark Paris 2015 UN climate conference have cut back, partially or in many cases entirely, on their commitments, and large donations by philanthropic foundations have scaled back ever since, and before, Trump uttered “drill baby drill.” Trump is likely the biggest promoter of dangerous climate change in political history; he’s the Genghis Khan of Disruptive Climate Change.
Counterintuitively, the worse climate change gets, the more advocates for doing something constructive turn tail. “A greenwashing survey of more than 3,500 companies with climate commitments has found that nearly all of them — 96 percent of the sample — fall short on at least one risk indicator. The study, which the authors say is the largest of its kind, paints a bleak picture of corporate climate pledges.” (Greenwashing Risk is Widespread, Survey of 3,500 Companies Finds, Trellis – Data-Driven EnviroLab, University of North Carolina, March 5, 2026)
Moreover, with only a handful of the 195 countries that agreed to cut emissions at Paris 2015 ‘maybe’ meeting their CO2 commitments, this digression also registers with the public mindset, tossing in the towel on mitigation measures: “Americans Are Increasingly Pessimistic About Avoiding the Effects of Climate Change,” Pew Research Center, May 28, 2026.
Extinction Rebellion ‘Wakes Up’ UK
Mr. Hohn proudly admits to funding Extinction Rebellion (XR), a high-profile global nonviolent movement to compel the world to address the climate and ecological emergency co-founded by Roger Hallam, with a personal donation (Hohn) of £50,000 plus CIFF (Hohn’s Children’s Investment Fund Foundation) giving an additional £150,000 alongside commitments by The Climate Emergency Fund (CEF) co-founded by heiress Aileen Getty with a commitment by Hollywood director of Don’t Look Up (2021) Adam McKay ($4M to CEF), The Gargantuan Lie That is Collapsing the World’s Climate, Current Affairs, August 6, 2026. He wrote a brilliant article.
“I’m not ashamed to say that I funded them for public awareness-raising because a lot of people have been asleep on this issue. We didn’t support anything illegal, but they did an important job in their peaceful work in raising public awareness.” (Hohn)
In 2022 Roger Hallam was sentenced to five years in prison (later reduced to 4 years) for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance” because “he spoke on a Zoom call to help organize a nonviolent protest.” It was one of the longest sentences for non-violent (peaceful) protests in UK history. No further comment needed!
Roger Hallam Interview: Democracy Necessitates Resistance (w/Roger Hallam) The Chris Hedges Report, July 17, 2026.
Hohn’s motto: “Our life is a gift and that means our money is a gift and we’re meant to share it.” Senator Bernie Sanders and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “Fighting Oligarchy Tour” couldn’t have said it any better. See Red State & Blue State videos of over-crowded SRO venues clamoring to hear Bernie and AOC. Red States? Yes!
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