A United Kingdom-based radio host has made waves on the internet after insisting during an interview with a climate change protester concrete could grow.
Climate change activist group Insulate Britain has been making headlines both in the United Kingdom and globally, after holding protests where they glue themselves to busy roads, with 50 people being arrested in London throughout October for "risking lives and ruining journeys".
Talkradio UK, which has platformed many controversial right-wing hosts including the infamous Katie Hopkins, interviewed Insulate Britain spokesman Cameron Ford in a segment that lasted less than a minute.
The show's host, Mike Graham starts off by asking Ford "what he's glued to" to which Ford replies, "just your screen, unfortunately," perhaps setting the tone of what is to come in the heated interview.
Graham then asks Ford what he does for a living, with Ford stating that he is a carpenter.
"A carpenter.. Right. So how safe is that for the climate?" Graham queries.
"Well, I work with timber, which is a much more sustainable material than concrete," Ford starts to reply, before Graham interrupts.
"But you work with trees that have been cut down, don't you?" Graham says.
Ford starts to explain that using timber is a "sustainable building practice" before Graham jumps in to ask, "how is it sustainable if you are killing trees?"
"It's regenerative… You can grow trees. You can't grow concrete," a visibly frustrated Ford says.
Graham smugly states, "yeah you can," before the pair enter an uncomfortable stare-off. The host then abruptly ends the interview with no further explanation.
One former talkRadio staffer told the Guardian the station often pushed provocative topics, such as criticising Black Lives Matter.
"If you can do anti-woke stuff with humour, that’s the most popular stuff. Mad rightwing invective with humour, that seems to be very popular online."
That is certainly the case for the "concrete grows" video, which has amassed over 10 million views on Twitter at the time of writing.
Graham went on to ask various "experts" whether concrete did in fact grow, including a "futurist" Tom Cheesewright.
"Yes, you can grow stone and effectively turn carbon dioxide into a variety of stone like materials," Cheesewright says.
"In the fundamentals of the process, you are correct."
However, Twitter users chose not to accept Cheesewright's explanation, and instead poked fun at Graham by trying to grow their own concrete.
One user posted a picture of a block of concrete in water, writing in a post, "Have I got the position right? Does it need more water? Or does it just go dormant in winter? Any help would be appreciated, I need to get it growing as it is meant to be a carpark by next summer."
Another user posted a picture of some skyscrapers, with the caption: "Planted a couple of bricks a few years ago, look at how they have flourished."
New Zealand has been experiencing its own climate change movement this week, with Extinction Rebellion protesters supergluing themselves to the steps of Parliament on Wednesday.
