Kevin Rudd has pledged allegiance to the near-theological belief that climate change is 'the greatest long-term threat to us all'. He has, moreover, single-handedly transformed Hillary Clinton's 'vast right-wing conspiracy' into a climate change demon, warning darkly that his opponents are 'alive in every major country, including Australia, constitute a powerful global force for inaction, and . . . are particularly entrenched in a range of conservative parties around the world'. The Prime Minister concludes it is 'time to remove any polite veneer from this debate'. Speaking for his own conduct, he at least got the last point right.
In fact, those arguing most vociferously that climate change requires greater government regulation of the economy, higher taxation, and more 'global governance' are precisely the people who argued for these policies before global warming was even a theory. Climate change has thus become the banner under which these statists argue for precisely the same positions they argued for without any evidence of climate change. Indeed, they would likely argue for exactly the same policies even if we were confronted with global cooling (the scientific fad of the Sixties and Seventies) rather than its opposite.
...Those professing concern for global warming should want to consider the fullest range of alternative solutions. If not, then we are at least entitled to ask if what really motivates them is less the risks of global warming and more their ceaseless efforts to increase the power and intrusiveness of government in the economic and personal affairs of our citizens. That, Mr Rudd, is really 'the greatest long-term threat to us all'.
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