Aznar: send money to bankers, not environment scientists

You know when Jose Maria Aznar shows up on the Catalan morning news pontificating from a FAES lecturn, it's going to be good. Speaking at the launch of a global-warming-sceptic book by the Czech president, Aznar insisted that he believes that it's happening, but not that things are as bad as the scientists say. So far, so moderate, you might think.

But then Aznar said something rather perplexing: that we're spending too much on combatting climatic change, especially during an economic crisis. Now, aside from the fact that the main part of the current crisis is financial, not economic, per se, one wonders whether Aznar thinks the environment will wait for short-trading investment bankers to catch their breath before continuing to raise sea levels and act abnormally. Does he really think that every time the coffers look a little empty or we have a w... Argh! Nearly mentioned the war. Can't mention the war.

Aznar continued by saying that criticism of the climate change theories was treated much like being Jewish during the Inquisition, or socialist during the dictatorship. Well, he didn't put it that way but he was trying to make a point about environmentalism becoming a sort of orthodoxy.

I've two problems with this speech. Firstly, his suggestion that scientific funding ought to be cut just because of an economic crisis makes it sound as if, despite his claims to the contrary, he doesn't really believe in climat change. Not really. This leads him to his other position, the persecution complex which suggests that disagreeing with the scientists will get you thrown on the bonfire. And this coming from a politician who was hardly known or celebrated for his tolerance of views he didn't agree with.

Anyway, to test this bonfire theory of his, I propose that Aznar denigrates climate change science at every FAES function from now on. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

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