Climate change

I've never even tried to pretend that I understand where exactly John Howard is coming from. My views on pretty much everything are so wildly divergent from the Liberal party that it's often hard for me to even work up feelings of surprise any more when he does something new and monumentally stupid. But I must say that his comments on climate change over the last few days have really stepped it up for me; gone to a whole new level of "what the hell?!" Take, for example, this comment about a 'new Kyoto' agreement:

"If everybody is in, I am prepared to lead Australia in. But I am not prepared to lead Australia into an agreement that is going to betray the interests of the working men and women of this country and destroy the natural advantage that providence gave us."

Huh?! First of all, could someone please explain to me what this 'natural advantage' is that 'providence gave us'? An incredibly dry and harsh environment? Terrible drought? Secondly, aren't you betraying the interests of 'working men and women' (why doesn't he just say battlers - that's obviously what he was thinking of) by not doing anything now? It's those men and women who are going to find it incredibly hard to deal with rising petrol and food prices.

When accused, quite rightly, of being out of touch with the thinking of the majority of Australia, the Liberal Party's reply was that Kim Beazley just wants to "please the latte set." But as Labor's environment spokesman said, there must be "a lot of Australians drinking cafe latte around Australia today, because 92 per cent of them say his Government is not doing enough on climate change."

This Saturday November 4 is the International Day of Action on Climate Change, and all around the country there will be Walks Against Warming. I'll be in an exam when the Canberra one is happening, but please believe me when I say I would sincerely much prefer to be doing the walk instead! So go along if you can; if you can't, make sure you put your name on GetUp's Climate Action Map. Maybe one day John Howard will realise just how out if it he really is.