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Andrew Bolt: Global warmists using virus to push dangerous ideas

Global warmists are using the coronavirus catastrophe to preach about building a greener world from the ashes of the economies we’re destroying with crippling bans. We can’t let this virus panic bite us twice, writes Andrew Bolt.

Watch out. This coronavirus catastrophe — caused mainly by a vast government over-reaction — is giving global warmists dangerous ideas.

António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, is already exploiting the virus for his warmist cause, preaching it’s “exposed the fragility of our societies and economies to global shocks, such as disease or climate disruption”.

We must now build a greener world, he insists, from the ashes of the economies we’re destroying.

“Invest in green jobs … end fossil-fuel subsidies. Take climate risks into account in all financial and policy decisions.”

Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg. Picture: AFP
Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg. Picture: AFP

Hmm. Take the climate into account in every decision, just like we consider the slightest perceived health risk before relaxing these crippling bans that are making us poorer.

In Sweden, global warming saint Greta Thunberg tweeted out a news story claiming that “the coronavirus pandemic is likely to be followed by even more deadly and destructive disease outbreaks unless their root cause — the rampant destruction of the natural world — is rapidly halted”.

Thunberg particularly likes how we’ve put our economies in the hands of doctors.

“We now must … co-operate and listen to the science and the experts,” she tweeted.

Experts, no doubt, just like Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton.

Sutton advises Premier Daniel Andrews, imposing the most pointlessly draconian bans of any state, banning even fishing (until an outcry) as well as golf.

Not to my surprise, Sutton also turns out to be a committed global warmist, and just weeks ago published a paper declaring “the climate crisis is a fundamental threat to public health”.

In it, he noted the Climate Change Act required the government to make sure “any policy, program or process … takes account of climate change”.

There’s an echo here of golf-banning absolutism. And there’s the same resource to dodgy modelling.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Picture: AFP
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Picture: AFP

Sutton last week was still justifying Victoria’s bans by citing modelling that predicted between 50,000 and 150,000 deaths here.

In his global warming paper, he warns that “in a scenario of 4 degrees warming at 2100” we’d get “coastal inundation, bushfire, extreme wind, soil movement and extreme heat”.

Four degrees warming? Seriously?

In fact, the slight warming we’ve had over 50 years hasn’t turned out badly at all. We’ve had record grain crops, fewer cyclones, less poverty and longer lives.

Watch out. You were bitten once in this virus panic. Don’t let them bite you again.

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Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Global warmists using virus to push dangerous ideas

Andrew Bolt
Andrew BoltColumnist

With a proven track record of driving the news cycle, Andrew Bolt steers discussion, encourages debate and offers his perspective on national affairs. A leading journalist and commentator, Andrew’s columns are published in the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph and Advertiser. He writes Australia's most-read political blog and hosts The Bolt Report on Sky News Australia at 7.00pm Monday to Thursday.

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-global-warmists-using-virus-to-push-dangerous-ideas/news-story/98577fb472ec170ee69d0b5e7f9de923