Posted on 02/12/2007 6:09:00 AM PST by pissant
Edited on 02/12/2007 1:34:05 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
President of Czech Republic Calls Man-Made Global Warming a 'Myth' - Questions Gore's Sanity
Mon Feb 12 2007 09:10:09 ET
Czech president Vaclav Klaus has criticized the UN panel on global warming, claiming that it was a political authority without any scientific basis.
In an interview with "Hospodárské noviny", a Czech economics daily, Klaus answered a few questions:
Q: IPCC has released its report and you say that the global warming is a false myth. How did you get this idea, Mr President?•
A: It's not my idea. Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment. Also, it's an undignified slapstick that people don't wait for the full report in May 2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "but's" are scratched, removed, and replaced by oversimplified theses.• This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians. If the European Commission is instantly going to buy such a trick, we have another very good reason to think that the countries themselves, not the Commission, should be deciding about similar issues.•
Q: How do you explain that there is no other comparably senior statesman in Europe who would advocate this viewpoint? No one else has such strong opinions...•
A: My opinions about this issue simply are strong. Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice.
• Q: But you're not a climate scientist. Do you have a sufficient knowledge and enough information?•
A: Environmentalism as a metaphysical ideology and as a worldview has absolutely nothing to do with natural sciences or with the climate. Sadly, it has nothing to do with social sciences either. Still, it is becoming fashionable and this fact scares me. The second part of the sentence should be: we also have lots of reports, studies, and books of climatologists whose conclusions are diametrally opposite.• Indeed, I never measure the thickness of ice in Antarctica. I really don't know how to do it and don't plan to learn it. However, as a scientifically oriented person, I know how to read science reports about these questions, for example about ice in Antarctica. I don't have to be a climate scientist myself to read them. And inside the papers I have read, the conclusions we may see in the media simply don't appear. But let me promise you something: this topic troubles me which is why I started to write an article about it last Christmas. The article expanded and became a book. In a couple of months, it will be published. One chapter out of seven will organize my opinions about the climate change.• Environmentalism and green ideology is something very different from climate science. Various findings and screams of scientists are abused by this ideology.•
Q: How do you explain that conservative media are skeptical while the left-wing media view the global warming as a done deal?•
A: It is not quite exactly divided to the left-wingers and right-wingers. Nevertheless it's obvious that environmentalism is a new incarnation of modern leftism.•
Q: If you look at all these things, even if you were right ...•
A: ...I am right...•
Q: Isn't there enough empirical evidence and facts we can see with our eyes that imply that Man is demolishing the planet and himself?•
A: It's such a nonsense that I have probably not heard a bigger nonsense yet.•
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. They unambiguously imply that today, on February 8th, 2007, Nature is protected uncomparably more than on February 8th ten years ago or fifty years ago or one hundred years ago.• That's why I ask: how can you pronounce the sentence you said? Perhaps if you're unconscious? Or did you mean it as a provocation only? And maybe I am just too naive and I allowed you to provoke me to give you all these answers, am I not? It is more likely that you actually believe what you say.
[English translation from Harvard Professor Lubos Motl]
Developing...
The jury is still out on global warming, but surely we can all agree that Algore is insane.
If you go to Prague, you won't be disappointed. One of the best trips of my life.
The JURY is IN! TWELVE ANGRY MEN SAY "if the Weather won't fit, you must Aquit!!
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. They unambiguously imply that today, on February 8th, 2007, Nature is protected uncomparably more than on February 8th ten years ago or fifty years ago or one hundred years ago.• That's why I ask: how can you pronounce the sentence you said? Perhaps if you're unconscious? Or did you mean it as a provocation only? And maybe I am just too naive and I allowed you to provoke me to give you all these answers, am I not? It is more likely that you actually believe what you say. Well, it makes a lot of sense, Prof Klaus. Other parts of the interview were dedicated to the Organization of European States (and Jo Leinen), the Czech civil cold war that has already ended, the radar for the U.S. missile defense, and his relations with the current Czech government. Show postings on this blog that contain the word Klaus.
I also liked the part about where the other European leaders were "strangled" by political correctness, but as a scientist, he feels freer to speak out about this "nonsense".
Czech-mate!
President Klaus moves up with John Howard and Steven Harper as one of my favorite world leaders.
Yep. And the new guy in Poland ain't bad either.
"we are having the coldest February EVER and are running anywhere from 4 - 8 degrees below the record setting month of Febraury 1978."
That is SURELY heretical!!!
The Atheist Rapture is upon us!
The GOSPEL of St. Gore cannot be questioned in ANY WAY! You will be decertified and denounced!!
You will BURN in Atheist Hell, non-believer!! (A Week with a naked Rosie O'Donnell)
(Is a sarcasm tag really needed for this??)
How can he lose that which he never had? The man is, was and always will be a "legend in his own mind." Let's see, before 2000, there was:
I'm sure he's good for a lot more whoppers, but he's not worth the trouble.
Al Gore, aka Chicken Little.
Thanks for the update in PC terminology. However, all members of the VRWC are covering up the fact that every man, woman, child, and gay person on this planet is going to die because Bush just does not care about climate change.
In responcse to the clear, caring message delivered by Al Gore in his award-winning movie, the VRWC and their paid lackeys in the "science" community keep using stupid and confusing terms like "Cycle," "Tilt," Precession," Concentricity," "Sun Surface Activity," etc. If any of these scantily documented phenomena were true, Barbra Streusand would have sung about it long ago.
But you capitalists cannot alter the fact that women, children, gays, and members of minority groups are all going to die unless we sign the Kyoto Treaty immediately!
We visited "old Europe" last summer, and while it was nice, I was somewhat unimpressed. This guy could convince me to visit the Czech Republic, however!
"A: It's such a nonsense that I have probably not heard a bigger nonsense yet.•"
Man, I love the directness of some of our central European friends. Not one to mince words on the subject, is he?
Climate change? Sure, I believe in it - the climate's always changing. General warming trend over the last 100 years or so? Yeah, I believe that to be true, too. Now, proving that it's caused by human activity, and that this trend will continue for the next 100 (or 1,000) years - I don't think they've done it. Maybe if, and when, their climate models ever make consistent and testable predictions that are proven to be correct, then I might believe in their models. Otherwise I have no more faith that they can predict the climate in 10 or 100 years from now than I do that they can make a decent prediction of the local weather next Monday.
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