Climate Denier Abbott Gone; Climate & Science Denier Harper Faces Election Next Month
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Calling Rudd’s climate advocacy “evangelical,” Abbott, a former boxer, and his Liberal Party took over, pledging to punch out Australia’s carbon-trading scheme and put the brakes on government support for clean energy. Australia’s enormous coal industry was pleased. Since then, Abbott and his inner circle have been cast by opponents as climate change villains. Maurice Newman, a key business adviser, said earlier this year that climate change is a Trojan horse for a United Nations takeover of the world.
And as a possible last straw, Abbott’s Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, shared a joke last week about rising sea levels with the PM, not knowing it was captured by an overhead mike. The venue was a conference where the topic was the potential demise of Pacific Island nations due to sea level rise. The audience was not amused. As the new Prime Minister, Turnbull has vowed to continue Abbott’s policies. But back in 2009, when he and Abbott tussled for Liberal Party leadership, he called Abbott’s jumbled climate and energy policies “bullshit” – invoking a bit of political analysis that even Donald Trump is too shy to use in American politics.
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A coalition government between the Liberals and NDP would drastically alter Canadian policy on climate and energy. Conservatives have been dreading a downfall since May, when they placed third in Alberta’s provincial elections. The home of the tarsands is now run by the NDP, with a Tea Party-ish local entry called the Wildrose Party as the official opposition. Harper’s imperious style has helped imperil his party. If Abbott had hitched his wagon to coal, so has Harper with the tarsands in his native Alberta. His push to transform Canada into a sort of sub-Arctic oil sheikhdom has divided the nation, and has even moved the needle in U.S. politics in an unprecedented way in the controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Harper legacy also includes a veritable purge on government science, slashing marine and Arctic research, forcing a pioneering freshwater research facility to seek a private/provincial bailout, and muzzling science experts from contacting the media and public. Last month, an Environment Canada scientist was suspended for putting an anti-Harper protest song on YouTube.
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http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2015/09/tony-abbott-malcolm-turnbull-climate-change