President Václav Klaus speaks for the first time about the American radar base…

Posted by William M. Connolley on February 14, 2007
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…but also about global warming. See here. And also Lubos’s blog. And what did he have to say?

President Klaus also expressed his opinion on the recent finding of the UN scientific panel on global warming. In his opinion, warming is a myth. Oh dear, not a very good start.

Václav Klaus: I don’t see any destruction of the planet and I’ve never seen any… I would like to demonstrate my non-militant mood by showing that I have brought a Europencil Ah, is that the evidence for lack of destruction? More seriously, I would draw a distinction between environmental damage and global warming. The M11 near my home and office is environmental damage on a local scale; but maybe the Prez would see it as economically useful. But back to the global warming…


[HN: are the questions by Hospodářské noviny]

HN: …a UN panel published a report which again warns that global warming is one of the greatest dangers for all of civiliSation. Before that, the Stern report on similar threats was published. And you say to this that global warming is a false myth. Try to explain how you came to this. I didn’t come to this. It’s a false myth and I think that every serious person and scientist says it. Pointing to a UN panel is unfair. It isn’t a scientific institution, it’s a political organ. It’s like creating a non-governmental organization of green coloring. This isn’t a choice of neutral scientists, a balanced group of scientists. These are politicised scientists who are coming to this with one-sided opinions and assignments.”

This is fairly standard stuff: rather than argue with any of the conclusions, attack the process. He is wrong, of course (see RC) but I’m still looking for something to justify “warming is a myth”, and finding nothing. The journalist does a poor job on the interview: apparently its an all-or-nothing between trashing the planet and no warming. For all we know he believes in the temperature record, indeed in all of the AR4 SPM, but just doesn’t think its a problem.

Apparently the Prez is writing all this down in a book, so maybe that will be more coherent.

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Comments

  1. #1 Alexander Ac
    2007/02/14

    Dear William,

    there is a lot of discussion on the czech portal, why Vaclav Klaus says, what he says. He has no other choice, than to refute AGW (whatever and whenever it brings). Why?
    To say it simply, because he doesn’t believe in any regulation of the free market, what Kyoto inevitably brings. For his idea of economic freedom, he is able to claim apparently wrong statments.
    He also makes no difference between climate science and eko-terrorism. He has no idea about basic ecological principles, on the other hand, he is also arogant, and in this combination, You can see the result. What is bad, that he is a president, what is better, that he has no a lot of supporters…
    But, to support Vaclav Klaus climatological education – he said, that warmer temperatures will bring more snow and clouds, and this will offset the global warming… which is real, but NO CHANCE to be mainly caused by CO2 ;-)
    Best,
    Alex

    I don’t see why you can’t believe in a free market and also believe in GW. That would be open and honest. Refusing to believe in GW because fixing it would require things that are hard to include in a free market is just dishonest. The Prez is probably beter off believing in the warming, but not in the bad effects, if he wants any advice from me. I’m not sure its really plausible, but at least its defensible -W]

  2. #2 Luboš Motl
    2007/02/14

    Thanks for a report and a link to the full translation! It was not the first time Klaus hammered global warming: it was the first time when I made him being heard abroad. ;-) Best wishes, Lubos

  3. #3 Luboš Motl
    2007/02/14

    Incidentally, there are subtle differences in the translations. Of course, the detailed words are different. Their words reveal that they’re more or less native speakers while my translation reveals that I am articulate. :-) But some of them become bigger. For example, they have also used the term “false myth”. That’s used in Czech because we can also have true myths :-) – but in English, every myth is false and a false myth could become actually true. ;-)

    Second, the word “normal” (for people who are not Al Gore) is used in Czech as “sane”, and translating it to English as “normal” is simply an error. Also, at the end of the climate section, the translator probably misunderstood who said, according to Klaus, his honest opinion: it was the journalist.

    I think that Klaus wanted to say that the journalist wasn’t unconscious; he wasn’t smart enough to prepare an artificial provocation. So the only reason why the journalist said all these stupidities about global warming and destruction of the Earth was that he was as naive as Alexander Ac above and he actually believed these things. ;-)

  4. #4 outeast
    2007/02/15

    Alexander:

    Klaus’ support may be waning (though is it really? He seems to me to be well-liked still, even if generally not in the educated circles in which I move) but his position on AGW is not unique in the Czech government: Martin Riman, for one, appears to believe that ‘warming is a natural process’ and that AR4 (which he evidently has not read) is some kind of politicized UN conspiracy to rob the Czech Republic of every inch of its land for the production of biofuels (I paraphrase, but see the interview here).

    Lubose:

    Not sure this particuar translation indicates Klaus is being heard abroad (beyond readers of this blog). The Prague Daily Monitor is mainly targeted at British and American expats living in the Czech Republic…

  5. #5 Luboš Motl
    2007/02/15

    Dear outeast,

    welcome to the Earth, extraterrestrial alien. I didn’t mean their weak translation. I meant my translation that was copied as the annual special report to Drudge Report. The interview was copied to roughly 1000 blogs, discussed at Foxnews and Washington Times, and so forth. Although most traffic went through Drudge Report, my original page was linked by 110 blogs, most of which wanted Klaus run for the US president. The links are listed at the bottom of:

    http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/02/vclav-klaus-about-ipcc-panel.html

    Even David Roberts from Gristmill who proposed war trials for deniers was converted to Klaus’ side and wrote about it.

    You really live outside reality. My guess is that you’re a global warming believer, aren’t you?

    All the best
    Lubos

  6. #6 Luboš Motl
    2007/02/15

    Dear outeast, I looked at some other statements you write. A sane person couldn’t write what you did. Klaus’ approval rate jumped to 82% which is probably a historical maximum now. What support seems to be waning? You’re sure you don’t need a doctor? Best, LM

  7. #7 Alexander Ac
    2007/02/22

    Hi,
    Vaclav Klaus has released another interview yesterday. Again on Global warming. Again the same stupid claims…

    VK thinks, that existence of global warming is still disputed among scientist;-). He thinks that “true climatologists” do not believe in global warming significantly helped by CO2. He also thinks, that global warming is a “green propaganda”. But he never mention, propaganda against what?
    Best,
    Alex

  8. #8 Lubos Motl
    2007/02/22

    Dear Alex, it’s propaganda against civilization, common sense, and especially capitalism as such.

    I think that Vaclav Klaus also thinks that there is a kind of consensus: global warming is a myth and every serious person or scientist says it.

    If you have doubts about this translation of his important quote, check 11,000 pages about “Klaus” and “every serious person”:

    http://www.google.com/search?q=klaus+every-serious-person