I see that Polish MEP and former prime minister Jerzy Buzek has been overwhelmingly elected as president of the European Parliament. I debated Pan Buzek in September 2006 at Warsaw’s Energy Summit. He was adamant that the global-warming agenda was something that must be pursued. This may surprise you, but I was adamant in my explanations as to why that was unwarranted but also, in Poland’s case, unwise.
My powerpoint slide featuring a graphic mock-up of To Russia With Love, blaring “Vladimir Putin is back!,” with his head where Sean Connery’s should be and various pipeline infrastructure where the belly dancing ladies belonged, drew a roar from people who still remember the Russian tourists, whose gas Brussels now insists the Poles become dependent upon instead of all of that coal in (Buzek’s native) Silesia. Sure, the Russians cut the gas off to Poland even when the country was a satellite nation — but now, you see, they can be trusted.
Whether it was that fact that prompted a rethink by Buzek, I do not know — but, within months, I saw the following, re-run today in Benny Peiser’s CCNet:
No one publicly doubts if CO2 causes global warming — at European government level, the debate has moved on. But in less formal settings, some European politicians are still willing to revive the old questions. At a recent dinner party in Brussels, three Polish centre-right MEPs, including former Polish prime minister Jerzy Buzek, questioned the IPCC line. Mr Buzek explained he had seen new studies “which show it’s all down to natural cycles” and that Europe had already faced major swings in temperature before the industrial revolution. –Andrew Rettman, EUObserver, 20 February 2007
The president of the EP is a climate skeptic.
Continuing the upside-down theme, Benny also sends an e-mail noting the following:
Sarah Palin Attack on Cap and Trade — in the Guardian! Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph roots for Obama.
What’s next, politicians insisting that global warming is proceeding “even faster than predicted” while the planet cools — so that “we must act now!” with an energy tax that, oddly, doesn’t really kick in for a decade?
Oh, right…