Jon Snow: ‘The Environment Should Be The Backdrop To Everything We Do'

The Channel 4 news presenter and tree champion on how he woke up to climate change.

- Jack Watkins

IN a turbulent political year, Jon Snow, often presenting Channel 4 News live from the Palace of Westminster, has seemed like one of the few calm voices on the scene. Perhaps it’s because, unlike many covering the events, he’s never been a Parliamentary nerd, losing sight of the wider picture when disclosing the latest dodgy update from some undisclosed Government source.

He led an exciting life as a roving reporter before settling into his present role. His encounters with Idi Amin, Fidel Castro and Margaret Thatcher were recounted in his book Shooting History, things he now describes as ‘old news’. However, the early pages recall a picturesque childhood in the ‘green and rustic wastes’ of the Sussex Weald. He’s keener to talk about that and his memories of the setting are still vivid.

‘From my bedroom window in Ardingly, I could see the Balcombe viaduct on the London-Brighton railway line, about half a mile away,’ he says. ‘I’d watch the Brighton Belle in late evening bringing businessmen home, the little lamps shining on their tables. Between me and the viaduct was the most fabulous countryside, which meant I came to love trees both as a vista and then more intimately, because to go for any walk around there was to walk though woods of oak and ash.’