Václav Klaus on climate catastrophism

The following are the opening paragraphs of the President of the Czech Republic's Spectator review of Professor Robert Carter's book, Climate: the Counter-Consensus. The review is well worth reading in full.

It makes me sad to think that the newly liberated countries of the old Soviet bloc will soon be led by people who do not remember how vile it was to be ruled by an unelected oligarchy of corrupt bureaucrats claiming to be socialists. Although they will, of course, have learned how wonderful it is to be ruled by an unelected oligarchy of corrupt bureaucrats claiming to be social-democrats . . . 

Let me declare from the outset that I consider global warming dogma (and its widespread acceptance) to be one of the most costly and undemocratic mistakes in generations, and try, therefore, to contribute to its demolition.

As someone who spent most of his life under a repressive and highly inefficient regime, I can hopefully afford to say that the previous most costly and undemocratic ‘experiment’ was Communism. That too started quite innocently, and its supporters - probably - also believed that they fought for a noble cause. When I listen to the views and arguments of the global warming alarmists, they sound very similar to the arguments of the former politicians, journalists and public intellectuals in Communist Czechoslovakia.

Of course, the polemic about global warming has a very respectable scientific dimension. But in its substance and consequences, the debate is not part of the scientific discourse about factors influencing swings in global temperature. It is part of the public policy debate about man and society, about our political, economic and social systems, about our freedom or its possible loss. This difference should be made explicit.