Okay, We're Idiots

One of the leading journalist/authors writing on global warming is Briton, George Monbiot. Excerpts from his latest book, "Heat, How to Stop the Planet from Burning," were recently serialized in The Guardian. It was Monbiot who exposed the direct links between the tobacco lobby and the global warming denial industry.

In a Canadian Press article, Monbiot was asked what he thought of the Harper government's Clean Air Act:

"'Oh!' he says, his disgust clear in that single syllable. 'It seems, to a complete outsider, to be a misreading of the national mood. That bill was treating people like idiots, both lumping together local pollution with carbon dioxide pollution, and talking about the intensity of carbon emissions. It's almost like putting up a sign saying 'I think the people of this nation are suckers.'

"The Harper government, he says, is becoming an international embarrassment because of its environmental policies.

"'That Canadians are living in a fool's paradise, that they picture themselves as being environmentalist but their carbon emissions show they are as damaging to the planet as the U.S. and Australia,' he said.

"They have to act quickly or 'have on their conscience a major contribution to what could turn out to be deaths of hundreds of millions of people.'

"And that means taking political action; protesting bad government policy, and supporting any leader who is prepared to do the right thing, for whatever reason, added the author.

"Said Monbiot: 'We just have to make this work, it doesn't matter why we make it work, it doesn't matter who makes it work, if people are going to make it work we have to support them.'

As if we needed another reason to drive the Tories out of government.