Melanie Phillips is a journalist with an Oxford education in the English language, according to Wikipedia :-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Phillips
She is also a Global Warming denier. I use the word “denier” literally, not emotively, because she denies the facts on Global Warming. If she were to express doubt about Climate Change science, then there would be some wiggle room to allow calling her a “sceptic”. But as it is, she denies it. Outright. Watch, and be amazed ! :-
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/8382037.stm
She is, I would suggest, almost entirely ignorant of the facts. If I were being uncharitable, I would call her an “ignorama” : turning ignorance into a drama, or rather, an entertaining public spectacle.
The problem with her being given permission to express her views on Question Time is that this is highly-viewed national television. Where’s the balance ? Where, indeed, are the scientific facts ? Here follow just a few.
Contrary to popular belief, East Antarctica may not be stable and could be melting :-
https://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo694.html
“Nature Geoscience : Published online: 22 November 2009 | doi:10.1038/ngeo694 : Accelerated Antarctic ice loss from satellite gravity measurements”
The Copenhagen Consensus reports that sea level rise is accelerating :-
https://www.ccrc.unsw.edu.au/Copenhagen/Copenhagen_Diagnosis_LOW.pdf
“Satellite measurements show sea-level is rising at 3.4 millimeters per year since these records began in 1993. This is 80% faster than the best estimate of the IPCC Third Assessment Report for the same time period.”
And the global temperature is still going up :-
Can you argue with the facts ? It seems Melanie Phillips can, and seems likely to continue to do so, as she appears to wish to paint everything with an ideological-political brush.
Her opposition to the facts of Global Warming could perhaps be motivated by her allegiance to what appears to be a hotbed of deniers, the Daily Telegraph – she’s married to it in the form of their Legal Editor (according to Wikipedia).
This is the calibre of her writing : barely researched, and completely unscientific, in my humble, personal opinion. But don’t take my opinion as reliable – why should you ? Read it for yourself and make up your own mind :-
https://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5565331/green-totalitarianism.thtml