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Debunked: The Status Red warning during Storm Éowyn was not a 'climate lockdown'

A conspiracy theory claims that travel will be banned in the name of climate change.

AS PEOPLE STAYED indoors last week while storm Éowyn battered the country and set records for gusts and wind speed, images of empty streets were shared online and misleadingly labelled as showing a “climate lockdown”.

“Anyone else notice the climate lockdown yesterday?” a post by the group RiseUp Éireann on Instagram read.

RiseUp Éireann were involved in a number of anti-lockdown protests during pandemic restrictions.

The group has long spread outlandish conspiracy theories.

“When you look at this video, you would think it was from the winter of 2020 in the midst of convid [sic] lockdowns, and not Jan 24th 2025,” their post continues.

(The term “convid” is a combination of “Con” and Covid”, often used by people who think that the pandemic was a hoax).

“Did anyone notice that we had two climate lockdowns this month whereby schools and shops closed nationwide?” Jana Lunden, an activist who has protested pandemics as well as LGBT+ library books in Ireland, wrote on X on 24 January.

“Mini climate lockdown. It’s all about control and instilling fear, just like the covid hoax,” an Irish X user wrote on 23 January in response to warnings of Storm Éowyn.

The concept of “climate lockdowns” has spread in conspiracy theory and climate change-denial groups in recent years, following on from lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many conspiracy theorists had previously said that Covid restrictions were not in place to prevent the spread of diseases. Rather, they were designed to wield control, train people for future restrictions, or stop people from seeing the rollout of 5G, which was also a target of conspiracy theories.

In essence, proponents of the “climate lockdown” conspiracy theory falsely say that elites will enforce the same types of restrictions in place during Covid-19, such as limits on travel or what businesses could be open.

However, conspiracy theorists believe that – rather than justifying lockdowns by saying they prevent the spread of disease – climate lockdowns will use carbon emissions targets as an excuse to curb civil liberties.

Proponents say that the ultimate goal of these lockdowns are to give shadowy elites more control over the general population in preparation for the introduction of a sinister New World Order.

There is no evidence to support such claims.

Storm Éowyn hit Ireland last Friday, bringing maximum gust speeds of 183km per hour, beating Ireland’s previous record gust speed from 1945.

Met Éireann issued a red weather warning for the whole country, advising that extremely high winds would present a danger to life. This prediction has sadly proved accurate after a man in Donegal was killed when a tree fell on his car during the storm.

The Met office in the UK also issued a red warning for Northern Ireland. 

The public was advised to shelter in place during the storm, as travelling conditions were warned to be extremely dangerous, while there were fallen trees on roads and widespread power outages across the country.

Public transport and postal services were also cancelled for the duration of the red weather warning, while schools and many workplaces closed, at least for the duration of the warning.

These warnings from Met Éireann did not have legal force and could not compel people not to travel or go outside. The warnings were merely advice that people could choose to follow.

A peak of around 750,000 homes and businesses were left without power due to the storm; it has taken almost a week to restore electricity and water to many people

So while it is true that few people were on the street last Friday, this was not due to a “climate lockdown”. Rather, most people chose to stay inside during a dangerous storm that was warned of in advance.

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