Don't ya just love the former Commies?

There seems to be something about having lived under the catastrophic human experiment known as the USSR that gives one a greater sense of perspective on the realities of life. First up there was Mart Laar, a historian that became the first post-Soviet Prime Minister of Estonia, that pushed the country from the brink of economic extinction to 12th on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom 2007 by implementing the policies of the only book on economics he'd ever read, the great Milton Friedman's Free To Choose. Make sure to check that second link out, as it really is an uplifting story.

Now comes the previously little known Czech President Vaclav Klaus to raise his profile from zero to hero in the space of one interview with the daily rag, Hospodarske Noviny, on the myth of man made global warming. Having lived under socialist oppression and seen how it works he has no desire to see the world bow down to the current lot of totalitarian, green-wrapped socialists known as environmentalists.

Question: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its report and you say that global warming is a myth. How did you get this idea, Mr President?

Klaus: It's not my idea. Global warming is a myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the UN panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organisation of green flavour. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicised 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 May2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "buts" are scratched, removed and replaced with oversimplified theses. This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians...

Question: Isn't there enough empirical evidence and facts we can see with our eyes that imply that man is demolishing the planet and himself?

Klaus: It's such a nonsense that I have probably not heard a bigger nonsense yet.

Question: Don't you believe that we're ruining our planet?

Klaus: 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 ... 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 on February 8, 2007, nature is protected incomparably more than on February 8 10 years ago or 50 years ago or 100 years ago.

Hows' that go again? "Global warming is a myth and every serious person and scientist says so" and the release of the Summary for Policy Makers is "an undignified slapstick".

What a terrific fellow! In one fell swoop he reduces the 2000+ scientist-consensus to the realm of the non-serious. He calls a spade a frickin' front-end loader and helps those fighting the socialist pro-AGW orthodoxy to level the playing field so that a proper debate can take place. Hopefully, he'll make a point of maintaining a loud and obvious profile on the subject.