Guardian - Tony Abbott's Nihilism On Climate - And On Pretty Much Everything Else
Perhaps nothing better exemplifies the spinelessness, hypocrisy and turpitude of prime minister Tony Abbott's position on climate change than his comments on 3AW in December 2009: "Climate change is real. But I think there are lots of legitimate questions about its extent, how much humans are causing it, and certainly there is a very real and necessary debate about the mechanism for dealing with it."
Abbott made this sneering reference to climate science and global climate change mitigation efforts one day after becoming the leader of the Liberal party, prevailing over Malcolm Turnbull by a single vote. Just a day before, the policy position of that party was support for an emissions trading scheme and acknowledgement of the dangers posed by global warming that had been long confirmed by the scientific community.
EDIT
He has supported a carbon tax, then viciously opposed any price on carbon to appease a minority hard-core fringe. He has dismantled Australia's emissions trading scheme and internationally has allied with fossil-fuel addicted nations like Canada to block meaningful global action. Yet while doing this, he boldly declares himself to be a conservationist and that he considers climate change to be a "significant problem".
There is no other conclusion to draw that on the issue of global warming, Abbott is a climate nihilist. He holds no conviction or moral position on this issue of international and intergenerational significance. Only a climate nihilist could so viciously attack the measures introduced under the previous government that were designed to assist people on low incomes, prevent harm to peoples' livelihoods and the economy, and to (in some small way) mitigate the global climate catastrophe. On this issue, it appears that he believes in nothing and therefore cannot come to a moral judgement or sense any moral obligation to act. The gesture of "direct action" is the most contemptible element of his nihilism.
EDIT/END
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2014/aug/22/tony-abbott-climate-denial-weathervane-nihilism