The Biggest Lie Ever Told Is Only Four Words Long

This year, We Don’t Have Time turns ten. Which means I have spent ten years inside the climate crisis, more or less around the clock. My two youngest children have never really known a father whose work was anything else. Ten years of broadcasts, climate weeks and COPs across continents. Ten years of being away, working late, raising money and fighting to keep this work alive.

After ten years, I thought I would feel that we had accomplished something. That all those years, all that work, all that sacrifice had moved us somewhere.

Instead, I mostly feel exhausted.

Because the crisis did not slow down while we worked on it. After ten years, it feels more urgent than the day we started. And watching the summer of 2026 unfold, that exhaustion has deepened into something closer to grief. Because I can finally name the thing that has been killing us, and it is not carbon dioxide.

It is a lie. I believe it is the biggest lie ever told, and I will show you why I have come to that conclusion. It is not shouted by extremists. It is spoken calmly, by reasonable people, in parliaments, boardrooms and news studios. It is only four words long: