June 14, 2007
Vaclav Klaus
The man who would lead the United Nations in a perfect world, Vaclav Klaus, gets today's OpinionJournal Political Diary's "Quote of the Day."
"As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism.... The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment.... The issue of global warming is more about social than natural sciences and more about man and his freedom than about tenths of a degree Celsius changes in average global temperature" -- Czech President Vaclav Klaus, writing in the Financial Times.
UPDATE: Don Luskin links to the FT article. Well worth a read. Posted by jk at June 14, 2007 4:15 PM
What? "...environmentalism, not in communism?" They're the same thing!
Klaus alluded to this fact with this line from his essay: "The dictates of political correctness are strict and only one permitted truth, not for the first time in human history, is imposed on us. Everything else is denounced." [emphasis mine]
There is value in his recasting of the battle, however. Opposing communism is just so passe today.
Posted by: johngalt at June 15, 2007 3:14 PM | What do you think? [1]