Reading the SMH this morning I came across the article on John Howard’s speech to the Global Warming Policy Foundation. What’s interesting is that the Global Warming Policy Foundation is actually a think tank skeptical about climate change.

John Howard said he was agnostic on the issue. He hadn’t ruled out the science but he had a hunch that things won’t be as bad as predicted.

There was a fundamental point that I did agree with John Howard on. Action on climate change cannot be used by Western economies to stall or slow the growth of the developing world to a higher standard of living. This is absolutely correct. We cannot request or expect billions of people to forgo their dreams and hopes of a better life because of the economic and social decisions of Western economies since the mid 1800’s.

This I think is the crux of the matter. Climate skeptics equate action on climate change with…