How 'climate lockdowns' became the new battleground for conspiracy-driven protest movement

LONDON — According to committed conspiracy theorist and climate change skeptic Linda Skinner, the Covid-19 pandemic was just the start of a global elite’s effort to oppress the world. What’s the shadowy cabal’s next goal? While there is no evidence such a plan exists, Skinner is part of a growing group, which evolved from anti-vaccine protests, that has energized a campaign against environmental measures across Britain and elsewhere. Many of these fears are generalized into opposition to “15-minute cities,” an urban planning idea designed to reduce traffic and increase walking and cycling that has become an obsession of the post-pandemic protest movement. For a generation of anti-government protesters radicalized by their opposition to pandemic lockdowns, the latest protest movement is about what they claim are powerful global elites' efforts to control, divide and even dramatically reduce the world’s population.