Talking " Crap " !

This week Australia's reputation as a modern, first world country was trashed in London when a man who had been this country's prime minister gave a speech that claimed that global warming was actually good for the planet.  He qualified that remark with an observation that " far more people die in cold snaps "

Of course he was speaking to a bunch of nuts with commonly sceptical views who gather under the title of the  " Global Warming Policy Forum " but Tony Abbott chose to compound this exercise in imbecility by reminding his audience that " primitive people once killed goats to appease the volcano gods - and we are more sophisticated now ".

Few thinking people doubt that we have been adding more carbon dioxide to the air since James Watt invented the steam engine and set the industrial revolution in motion, and then Henry Ford gave us the age of the motor car and we started refining oil to keep them running.  Ordinary men and women have noticed that recent Australian summers have been hotter and that heat records have been broken.

The ice at the north pole has been retreating and for centuries the Europeans sought what was termed " the North West Passage ", the ability to sail around the top of Canada and link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  That has now become a reality in high summer.

Polar bears are facing extinction.  They are a land based animal and they need floating sea ice from which they hunt their food.  The ever thinning ice can no longer provide this sanctuary and these desperate animals are congregating near human settlements and threatening human life.

A warmer ocean adds strength to tropical storms that we call Cyclones, Hurricanes or Typhoons and we have seen this phenomenon grow in both number and intensity.   The overwhelming opinion of Earth's scientists is that we have a heating planet and this will change rainfall patterns and affect food production.  It brings with it the expectation that sea levels will rise and flood many coastal cities.

Tony Abbott is famous for once stating that " Global warming is crap " !  He is a man who trained to be a priest and religion plays a big part in his outlook.  Perhaps his reference to goats being sacrificed to the volcano gods was unfortunate.   The church he supports and whose dogma he tries to inflict on the Australian population does not have a good record of supporting science or of admitting its mistakes.

It once insisted that the universe revolved around the earth. When Galileo invented the telescope and proved that the planets revolved around the sun, his reward was imprisonment for the rest of his life.
The church was also the instigator of what came to be called the " Inquisition ".   For centuries it sent forth " inquisitors " to seek and punish " heretics ".   That's was anyone who in any way disagreed with the church's teachings.  It was a regime of torture, with many innocents burnt at the stake as the inquisition was used to settle scores.

To suggest that such inequities are long past is nonsense.  Many societies still exist where clever women who know the healing power of forest herbs can be accused of witchcraft - and summarily executed.  Tony Abbott casts shame on the high office he once attained when he chooses the gobbledygook of religion to cast doubt on what is fast emerging as a world threat !