Can we vote for the Czech president in 2008?

Common sense from a man who has seen Marxism’s ugly hand:

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Wednesday that fighting global warming has turned into a a ‘religion’ that replaced the ideology of communism and threatens to clip basic freedoms.

The right-wing president, a free-market champion, wrote to the U.S. Congress that adopting tough environmental policies to fight climate change would have destructive impact on national economies.

‘Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism,’ Klaus wrote in response to questions from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce.

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Klaus, who does not hold many executive powers but is by far the most popular politician in the ex-communist Czech Republic, has taken a decisively opposite stance on the issue.

Klaus said poor nations would also be hurt by efforts to impose limits and standards on emissions of gases believed to cause global warming.

‘They will not be able to absorb new technological standards required by the anti-greenhouse religion, their products will have difficulty accessing the developed markets, and as a result the gap between them and the developed world will widen,’ he wrote.

‘This ideology preaches earth and nature and under the slogans of their protection – similarly to the old Marxists – wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central, now global, planning of the whole world,’ he added. (Emphasis mine.)

Read the rest here.

Contrast this level headed approach to Gore’s hysteria:

Al Gore, a Democratic favorite for the presidency despite pronouncements that he’s not running, spoke out on his signature issue Wednesday, warning of a “true planetary emergency” if Congress fails to act on global warming.

In a return he described as emotional, Gore testified before House panels that it is not too late to deal with climate change “and we have everything we need to get started.” By turns folksy and prescriptive, he urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to adopt an immediate freeze on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

And let me say again, as I say every time I write about this issue. I believe global warming is occurring. I have my doubts about the contention that it’s all the fault of human beings. I side with Klaus’ belief that this is rewarmed Marxism, again ranged against Capitalism and against First world economies. However, having said all that, I’m strongly in favor of sensible approaches to using alternative fuels that will leave our world cleaner (which is definitely a nice thing), and that will stop our dependence on Middle Eastern and Latin American dictatorships, and pull the plug on the money flowing into the finance the terrors they visit on their own people and on the world. So, while I strongly disagree with the hysteria and I doubt the “science,” I’m not at all averse to a sensible approach to the same goal, which is clean, cheap energy.

Hat tip: Drudge

UPDATESteven Hayward summarizes some of the sanity that’s starting to trickle back into the climate change debate, as an antidote to Bore’s fevered rantings.

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