Environmentalism’s prophet of doom, former Vice President Al Gore, has finally found “The Movement We Need.”
This movement is located in Australia, and Gore would like to transplant it in the United States.
Here is what he says about it on his blog, under the title “The Movement We Need”:
Around the world, when politicians fail to act to solve the climate crisis, people are taking action:
“Tens of thousands of protesters — and a few skeptics — have taken to the streets across Australia to urge the major political parties to take action on climate change.”
“Both Labor and the coalition have failed to take decisive action to cut Australia’s pollution levels in the run-up to the federal election, Walk Against Warming rallies in Australia’s capital cities heard on Sunday.”
It is my hope we see activism like this here in the United States. A special thanks goes out to those I trained in Australia to give my slide show. They played a major role in the events:
“In Sydney, Al Gore’s Climate Project presenter, Nell Schofield, attracted huge cheers when she said Australia’s lack of political action on climate change was ‘not only embarrassing, it is morally reprehensible.’”
That’s right: Gore credits his slide show for the protests “Down Under,” and he hopes Americans will take to the streets following their lead.
Of course, the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue may be less than sanguine about Gore’s attempt to establish a parallel between the Australian and American electoral cycles in connection with the environment. The current Australian contest is between Labor PM Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott, who are now contending over a relative handful of seats to form a parliamentary majority. Gillard rose to leadership of her party when she led an unprecedented move to drive out her own party’s then-current Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. Rudd’s environmental agenda was in step with Gore’s agenda of carbon taxes, the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. But Gillard’s record has not earned as favorable a review from the fringe—thus the marchers in the street.
The economically disastrous course which the radical environmental fringe seeks to impose on Western economies would have a particularly deleterious impact on Australia, which relies heavily on the shipment of coal and iron to keep its economy afloat. As Bloomberg reporter Marion Rae reports:
The Greens Party, which has called for a carbon price in 2011 to be followed by emissions trading, will hold the balance of power in the Senate, disrupting the legislative agenda of the new government.
Australia, the world’s largest shipper of coal and iron ore, hasn’t had a recession in nearly 20 years, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia. The economy, buoyed by demand for those commodities from India and China, grew last year when most others shrank and its unemployment rate was 5.3 percent in July, almost half that of the U.S.
Should Labor lose power, it would be the first time Australians have ejected a single-term government since 1931, and make Gillard the shortest-serving prime minister in 42 years.
Far from being the “Movement We Need,” Gore’s acolytes in Oz could threaten the future of their nation’s economy. Around the world, the real “movement we need” is a movement away from government control of every aspect of our lives. The “movement we need” is away from manipulation of individual choices by government coercion under the guise of a mythical power to better determine what is best for the lives of citizens. The “movement we need” is away from the debunked claims of manmade global warming to attention to real environmental challenges within the power of human beings to address.
Photo of Al Gore: AP Images
