Why conservatives are climate change sceptics
Full Article : http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/45394.html
The simple fact is it’s because, to conservatives, climate change is not about science or economics. To conservatives, climate change is a moral issue.
And the moral worldview adopted by many conservatives predisposes them to reject the very notion of anthropogenic climate change well before any evidence or reason has a chance to interject.
Why a moral issue? Because politics is, for many, an inherently moral subject: it has to do with the duties and obligations of those in power over the people. And when it comes to morality, and how we form our moral attitudes, it’s (sadly) not reason that is the prime mover, but psychology, emotion and ultimately our implicit worldview.
Lying just beneath the surface of all our well thought-through political attitudes, just deep enough to evade easy observation, is our implicit worldview. This is the way we make sense of the world around us, and inject it with meaning and value. It operates automatically, parsing a scene as we observe it, giving it its salience and inspiring an immediate emotional response.
Tony Abbott questions scientific evidence for climate change – Does not accept carbon dioxides effects, cutting greenhouse gas not important
“…whether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven.”
“…I don’t think we should assume that the highest environmental challenge, let alone the great moral social and political challenge of our time, is to reduce our emissions,”
I was wondering about the timing of this “coming out” as an explicit climate change denialist… not even 48 hours after his dear Cardinal Pell launched an attack on climate science
Article here: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/pell-row-with-climate-scientist-heats-up-20110313-1bsx6.html
Not a coincidence?
Cardinal Pell made this famous comment in his 2006 Legatus Summit speech:
Some of the hysteric and extreme claims about global warming are also a symptom of pagan emptiness, of Western fear when confronted by the immense and basically uncontrollable forces of nature. Belief in a benign God who is master of the universe has a steadying psychological effect, although it is no guarantee of Utopia, no guarantee that the continuing climate and geographic changes will be benign. In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
Complete
and utter
Asstards
He doesnt care about you or Australia – Abbott ‘would do anything to gain power’
Full article: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/abbott-would-do-anything-to-gain-power-windsor-20110228-1baxp.html
Tony Abbott was so hungry for power he was willing to do anything to form government after the election, one of the men who blocked his dream says.
Independent MP Tony Windsor says his discussions with Mr Abbott did deal with what do about climate change.
"Tony Abbott did say during those discussions that he would do anything to gain power," Mr Windsor told reporters on Tuesday.
Mr Abbott said he would rescind the carbon tax if he was elected to government.
Mr Abbott said the shadow cabinet had signed off on the decision this morning.
"We had a full discussion in shadow cabinet. The same as the mining tax, we will oppose it in opposition and will rescind it in government," he told reporters.
Mr Abbott rejected Mr Windsor’s comments, that he would do anything to get into government, as untrue.
Mr Abbott says the carbon tax will push up electricity and fuel prices and is an unwarranted burden on taxpayers.
"We will bring emissions down and the government will simply make emissions more expensive."
Economics 101, Tony! Making emissions more expensive is how you bring emissions down!
And then…
Abbott promises to ditch carbon tax
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/28/3150553.htm
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has confirmed the Coalition will repeal the Government’s carbon tax if it wins the next election.
The Opposition has been on the attack over the tax since Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced it on Thursday, but until now had stopped short of saying the Coalition would repeal the scheme.
This morning, Opposition frontbencher Andrew Robb told reporters the Coalition would scrap the tax if it won the next election.
A short time later, Mr Abbott repeated the promise.
"Our position on this is the same as our position on the mining tax, we will oppose it in Opposition, we will rescind it in government," he said.
"If the Coalition wins the next election you can be absolutely confident there will be no mining tax and no carbon tax," he said.
To fail to act on climate change … now that would be unethical
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/44542.html
But what exactly is the opposition arguing against? Abbott’s main argument of substance is that a price on carbon ‘constitutes an assault on the standard of living of every Australian’. This is a serious but very problematic objection.
It implies that it is only legitimate to mitigate climate change if it doesn’t cost anything. That is incorrect, irresponsible and naive. If it were true, we probably couldn’t take any action to mitigate climate change. Acting to minimise climate change involves addressing central features of current economic development models: energy consumption and land use. Transforming those aspects of our lives will incur an initial cost.
What’s more – and this is the crucial point – we have an ethical obligation to mitigate climate change. Why? Because failure to do so means unacceptably high risks of serious harm to millions of people. This is crucial to understand in any argument over the costs of action.
This is a really good article, go back up to the link and read the full thing.
Mr Abbott will say fucking anything…
“We already knew this, didn’t we? I mean, this is the guy who offered Andrew Wilkie $1billion (source) to build a hospital, if Wilkie agreed to vote for him. Political bribes don’t come much bigger than that (at least in Australia).
It’s one thing for a politician to be a disgusting human being, a lot of them are. Tony Abbott is beyond disgusting even for a politician, which in human terms makes him some sort of foul monstrosity we don’t even have the words to accurately describe.”
Quote source: http://redd.it/fu2gd
He’s probably trying to get in the good books with these equally stupid people:
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/climate-zombie-caucus/
Half the incoming Republican members of Congress do not believe that global warming is real, or that it’s caused by human activity.
