By: Umme Kulsum
June 14 2023
No, Guardian columnist George Monbiot did not write a column on hot weather in June
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
Monbiot has confirmed that the screenshot circulating on social media is fake.
Claim ID 0533ac8e
Context
A screenshot of a fake Guardian article circulating on social media reads, "Hot weather in June, normally one of the 12 coldest months of the year: further proof that the Climate Emergency is real." The strap of the article states: "And yet Climate Deniers-far-right Big Oil shills-claim "hot weather in June is perfectly natural. Delusional or what?"
The date on the screenshot claims that columnist George Monbiot wrote the article on June 12, 2023.
In Fact
There is no record of the alleged article on Monbiot’s author page on The Guardian’s website. Monbiot's most recent column on the site is about "opencast mining" and is dated June 1, 2023; no piece with his byline has been published since June 1.
The Guardian told Logically Facts, "We can confirm that the link shared has never been a published Guardian headline or story."
On June 12, 2023, Monbiot called out the screenshot on Twitter as fake. Monbiot wrote, “Idiot after idiot, fooled by an obvious parody headline.”
Logically Facts also debunked a similar post with a false headline attributed to Monbiot in June 2023, in which he claimed to have gotten COVID-19 “23 times.”
The Verdict
The screenshot of the Monbiot article is fake, and neither The Guardian nor Monbiot has published any such article. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.