Czech president: Gore Meltdown

Czech president Vaclav Klaus, doubtless clued in to the perils of groupthink by his familiarity with the old Soviet system, speaks out on the politics of global warming and says it's " obvious environmentalism is a new incarnation of modern leftism". Klaus is incredulous at the "undignified slapstick" of treating this summary report by politicized scientists as the final word on global warming when the full report does not come out until May. And there's this exchange:

Q: Don't you believe that we're ruining our planet?• A: I will pretend that I haven't heard you. Perhaps only Mr Al Gore may be saying something along these lines: a sane person can't. I don't see any ruining of the planet, I have never seen it, and I don't think that a reasonable and serious person could say such a thing. Look: you represent the economic media so I expect a certain economical erudition from you. My book will answer these questions. For example, we know that there exists a huge correlation between the care we give to the environment on one side and the wealth and technological prowess on the other side. It's clear that the poorer the society is, the more brutally it behaves with respect to Nature, and vice versa.• It's also true that there exist social systems that are damaging Nature - by eliminating private ownership and similar things - much more than the freer societies. These tendencies become important in the long run.

Translation of an interview with a Czech financial publication by Harvard professor Lubos Motl. At Drudge.

Mark Steyn with more enviro-skepticism. (This column also appeared in the Sun Times.) Also good editorial, NY Sun, via RCP.


Previous posts: Not Melting, Misleading Information, Not So Fast, The Cosmic Ray Theory