Executive Director of CFACT Europe attended
UN Climate Conference in Montreal
Bush-Blair-approach to global warming
is
the solution not the problem, Thuss says
In order to present his views on the issue of global warming, Holger Thuss, Executive Director of CFACT Europe, attended the 11th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference last December in Montreal. "I didn't think that there were so few people who believe in new innovative solutions to deal with catastrophic weather disasters" Thuss said. "It is unbelievable that some delegates and groups still try to sell a global planned economy or even a pre-modern, pre-industrial way of life as a solution to environmental problems, after all we have seen in Eastern Europe in 1989. The US and the UK government and their partners seemed to be the only reasonable voices at this meeting. To label them the "only real problem" of the conference doesn't make any sense. If a flood is coming you need technology, not more red tape like the Kyoto protocol" he continued.
The Climate Change Conference, which ran from November 29 until December 9, was the first meeting since the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to limit greenhouse gases, was put into effect in February 2005 with Russia's ratification.
Of the 5000 or so delegates and guests, Mr. Thuss was able to talk to Helmut Hojesky, head of the Austrian delegation, as well as many NGO- and media representatives. On December 1, he gave a presentation in the EU-pavilion under the title "CFACT-Europe: A Fresh Look at Issues of Climate and Sustainability." It was followed by the presentation of CFACT's Social Entrepreneurship and Free-Market Environmentalism Demonstration Program (SEFED), a market-oriented development project in Cancun, Mexico, and by a very emotional debate with representatives of Greenpeace Canada.
The following day, Mr. Thuss participated in a mock hockey game organized by Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) to highlight some of the economic and scientific flaws in the global warming debate. The students criticized the Kyoto Protocol because they said the treaty creates higher energy prices and forces energy rationing on poor people of the world, particularly in developing nations. Since the performance took place in the central lobby of the Montreal conference center it attracted many spectators.
Together with David Rothbard, President of CFACT, Craig Rucker, Executive Director of CFACT, and the students, Mr. Thuss advocated for more science, technology and free market solutions to any potential climate change. "More freedom means more prosperity. Wealthier means healthier" they explained in a press release.
The mock hockey game featured the "Kyoto Heroes," consisting of the U.K., France, Germany, Canada and Japan, versus the "Global Warming Rogues," consisting of the United States, China, India, Australia and Russia.
The hockey game was itself a symbol of the controversy since the now scientifically challenged "hockey stick" graph has served as the foundation for the "global warming" theory. The graph resembles a hockey stick lying flat with the blade end representing the sharp temperature increases allegedly caused by man in the 20th century.
In the game, held under "Kyoto rules," the U.S. spent the entire game in the penalty box, while China and India ran up the score. With the recent change in approach of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the CFACT-activists believe that the international tide has turned, and that stakeholders can begin a true discussion about whether global climate change is occurring, and how nations can work together to help humanity cope.
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