Roger Daltrey: I’m an eco-sceptic (Won’t get fooled again…)
The Times, 11 January 2024
He’s the rock legend whose band, the Who, was one of the biggest in the world. He’s also an eco-sceptic and Net Zero critic.
[…] “This country invented trains and they changed the world, probably more than the internet,” he says. “And where I live in Sussex, it’s like a medieval world. We’ve got beautiful views and no electricity pylons. Life hasn’t changed much there for 400 years.”
It all sounds lovely, but Daltrey has something on his mind.
“Do you enjoy looking at the English countryside?” he asks, making it sound vaguely like a threat.
Yes, I do.
“Well, make the most of it because when they rewild it they will turn it into Connecticut. Ever been to Connecticut? It used to be all dairy farms and now it’s a forest, a dark and dingy forest.”
Rewilding is a hotly debated issue, but Daltrey’s suspicion of change belies some highly unconventional views.
“Oil and coal are organic,” he says. “People don’t see that. Upgrading the grid so that everyone can have an electric car — and this is according to an engineering professor at Cambridge [Prof Michael Kelly], so what would he know, eh? — will require the equivalent of building three HS2s every year between now and 2050.”
