Rebel News Podcast: “Rebel News EXPOSES UN 'climate cult' in Brazil”

Host: Sheila Gunn Reid (filling in for Ezra Levant)
Date: November 20, 2025
Location: Belem, Brazil (on the ground at the UN Climate Change Conference)

Main Theme / Purpose

Sheila Gunn Reid reports first-hand from Belem, Brazil, at the heart of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, exposing what she characterizes as deep hypocrisy, environmental neglect, and elite double standards perpetrated by both the UN and global climate delegates. Her coverage challenges the conference’s climate rhetoric with on-the-ground investigations into local environmental conditions, UN actions, and the exclusion of skeptical media like Rebel News.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. UN’s Impact and Local Hypocrisy

• Neglect of Local Realities: Reid praises the warmth and resilience of Belem’s residents, lamenting that the UN’s presence has only added to their burdens rather than alleviating them.
• Environmental Colonialism: She accuses the UN of using the Amazon as a mere backdrop (“a prop”), disregarding the actual environmental and social issues facing the city (00:56).
• Waste Management Irony: The UN, while preaching sustainability, generates garbage that is dumped into impoverished neighborhoods (“favelas”) (01:23). Meanwhile, 95% of Belem’s sewage flows untreated into the Amazon, the same river in which delegates pose for photo ops.

2. Elite Comforts, Local Hardship

• Floating Hotels for Delegates: Due to inadequate local accommodations, delegates live on luxury cruise ships docked at the port, running full air conditioning and amenities—contradicting their climate ethos (02:20).
• Contrast with Environment: Raw sewage runs directly into the river near these cruise ships, revealing a stark duality between the privilege of attendees and environmental neglect.

Memorable Quote (03:13):

“We caught it all on camera. And then we did what thousands of journalists who came to the city just didn’t feel like doing. And that was actual journalism.”
—Sheila Gunn Reid

3. Infrastructure Projects for Elites, Not Locals

• Highway Through the Rainforest: To ease UN-related traffic, a new highway was cut through protected Amazon rainforest. Previously shelved on environmental grounds, the project was revived solely for the conference (05:06).
• Drone Restrictions / Censorship: Authorities refused to allow drone footage of the highway, going so far as to station security guards to shoot drones down, highlighting the project's embarrassment and secrecy (06:08).

4. Emissions and Energy Hypocrisy

• Massive Carbon Footprint: Reid calculates 55,000 attendees generate about 165,000 tons of CO2—roughly the emissions of 9,000 average Canadians for an entire year (09:36).
• Delegate Travel: She notes the irony of the climate elite burning massive amounts of fossil fuel for the week-long event while admonishing ordinary people for their comparatively small carbon footprints (10:15).

5. Superficial “Greenwashing”

• Beautification Efforts: The city constructed a park (“Nova Doka”—dubbed by Reid as “Fart Park”) atop open sewage, planting flowers that cannot survive in such conditions (11:01).
• Fake 'Eco' Trees: Real trees cut to build the venue and highway are replaced with artificial structures pushed as “eco-trees,” exposing the performative nature of these efforts (12:48).

Memorable Quote (14:26):

“I’m old enough to remember when real trees were called eco.”
—Sheila Gunn Reid

6. Selective Security & Exclusion

• Fortified Conference: Heavy police and riot control presence, especially after indigenous activists breached security. Despite hosting activists, the conference is ring-fenced to keep out dissenters and skeptical journalists (15:45).
• Barriers for Media: Rebel News, after a nine-year ban, was nominally re-accredited but denied venue access again without explanation or due process (16:07 & 35:19).

7. Public “Green Zone” — The Trade Show

• Hollow Activism: The Green Zone, open to the public, is filled with activist booths, air conditioning, plentiful coffee shops, and little actual engagement. Attendees seem more interested in comfort than climate action.
• Critique of Offsetting: Reid points out the performative nature of carbon offsetting on display—a $22 donation absolves “climate guilt” but ultimately profits corporations (19:56).

8. Anti-Israel and Political Displays

• Contentious Exhibits: The presence of pro-Iranian exhibits, anti-Israel messaging, and the assertion that Jewish actions are responsible for environmental harms stand out as starkly political and divisive elements allowed within the venue (22:07).

9. “Environmental Racism” and Local Hardships

• Favela Dumping Ground: With testimony and visual evidence, Reid reveals the UN and city government using poor, vulnerable communities as dumping grounds for their construction waste (24:43).
• No Aid for Locals: Local complaints about sewage and garbage are ignored, underlining a pattern where global elites harm marginalized residents while claiming to help the environment.

Memorable Quote (27:40):

“I think this is real environmental racism. This is a poor community… and the very powerful world’s elites have decided to hide their environmental carnage inside of their community.”
—Sheila Gunn Reid

10. Censorship of Dissenting Voices

• Climate Information Integrity: Reid highlights a new UN declaration encouraging governments and tech platforms to censor “misinformation, disinformation, climate denialism”—she points out this policy is already crystallizing in Canada and edges out dissenting journalists (30:49).

Memorable Quote (33:06):

“It’s a framework to pressure governments to censor climate misinformation, label dissenting views like mine as denialism, direct funding only toward approved narratives.”
—Sheila Gunn Reid

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 00:56 | Sheila Gunn Reid | “The people of Belem have been incredible… they deserve far better than what the UN has done to this city.” | | 03:13 | Sheila Gunn Reid | “We did what thousands of journalists who came to the city just didn’t feel like doing. And that was actual journalism.” | | 05:06 | Sheila Gunn Reid | “[The] highway was first proposed in 2012… shelved because cutting a highway through the Amazon would be too environmentally precarious. But it’s not precarious when the world’s elites need a shortcut.” | | 09:36 | Sheila Gunn Reid | “I did the math. I ballparked the flights… 165,000 tons of CO2. That’s roughly the same annual emissions as 9,000 Canadians.” | | 14:26 | Sheila Gunn Reid | “I’m old enough to remember when real trees were called eco.” | | 24:43 | Sheila Gunn Reid | “We found the dump site that the United Nations is using… they don’t have any power to stop them.” | | 33:06 | Sheila Gunn Reid | “It’s a framework to pressure governments to censor climate misinformation, label dissenting views like mine as denialism, direct funding only toward approved narratives.” |

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00] – [04:20]: Introduction, city context, UN’s actions
• [04:20] – [07:00]: Floating hotels, cruise ships, and environmental contradictions
• [07:00] – [10:30]: The new highway through the rainforest, drone restrictions
• [10:30] – [13:30]: Airport upgrades, delegate emissions, idling buses
• [13:30] – [16:00]: Nova Doka Park (“Fart Park”), fake eco-trees
• [16:00] – [19:00]: Security, fortification, exclusion of media
• [19:00] – [23:00]: Public Green Zone, carbon offset critique, political exhibits
• [23:00] – [27:00]: Favela investigation; local environmental racism
• [27:00] – [34:00]: UN media accreditation, history of censorship
• [34:00] – [40:00]: Recap, key findings, closing thoughts

Overall Tone

Sheila Gunn Reid’s tone is direct, critical, and sardonic throughout, with persistent skepticism toward UN climate policy, highlighted by on-the-ground irony and contrasts between elite rhetoric and local realities. The account is seasoned with sharp-witted asides, sarcastic observations about “climate scolds,” and a persistent theme of challenging mainstream climate narratives.

Conclusion / Final Thoughts

• Reid underscores the disconnect between the UN’s grand climate ambitions and its local actions, citing untreated sewage, displacement of the poor, flagrant carbon consumption by delegates, and performative greenwashing.
• She criticizes the growing movement toward information policing and ideological conformity around climate science, positioning Rebel News as a voice of dissent and independent investigation.
• She ends by thanking supporters, encouraging viewers to find more reporting at rebelun.com, and reinforcing the value of independent journalism.

For listeners who haven’t heard the episode, this summary delivers the criticisms, key stories, and memorable ironies that drive Sheila Gunn Reid’s on-the-ground investigation into the UN climate conference in Belem.