SYDNEY, Australia - July 27, 2011 - In a Sydney hotel on Monday night, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an economist who fought against communism, was warning of the new threats to our freedom he recognises in the doctrine of global warming. "Twenty years ago we still felt threatened by the remnants of communism. This is really over," Klaus said.
"I feel threatened now, not by global warming - I don't see any - but by the global warming doctrine, which I consider a new dangerous attempt to control and mastermind my life and our lives, in the name of controlling the climate or temperature."
Klaus, 70, who has twice been elected as Czech President and is its former prime minister, is one of the most important figures in post-communist Europe. His experiences under totalitarian rule have made him exquisitely alert to the erosion of democratic freedoms.
He said environmentalists had been arguing for decades that we should reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, using various farcical ploys from the exhaustion of natural resources to the threat of imminent mass poverty and starvation for billions.
"They don't care about resources or poverty or pollution. They hate us, the humans. They consider us dangerous and sinful creatures that must be controlled by them. I used to live in a similar world, called communism; and I know it led to the worst environmental damage the world has ever experienced."
Global warming alarmists "want to change us, they want to change our behavior, our way of life, our values and preferences. They want to restrict our freedoms because they themselves believe they know what is good for us. They are not interested in climate. They misuse climate in their goal to restrict freedom. Therefore... what is in danger is our freedom, not the climate," said Klaus.
He described the parallels he sees between the loss of freedom under communism and the new global warming doctrine.
Under communism, "politics dictated the economics and dictated life. Our main ambition during the dark communist days was to change that and create an autonomous society and autonomous economic system with only a marginal role played by politics. I am sorry to discover now that politics again dictates economics. The global warming debate is the same story (in which) politicians dictate the issue," added Klaus.
He said because of his experience of communism, "Maybe I am over-sensitive. I am afraid that some of the people who spend their lives in a free society don't appreciate sufficiently all the issues connected with freedom.”
