Shortly before the Copenhagen Climate Conference, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, delivered a canting, 45-minute rant about the “Denialists”, “Climate Change Deniers”, and “Skeptics” who, he said, were entirely funded by special interests and who were now so dangerous that they were putting Our Planet’s Future And The Future Of Our Children And Our Grandchildren in jeopardy. Kevin Rudd seems not to like me very much: he mentioned me by name six times in the speech, in generally uncomplimentary terms. I was too busy to reply to him before Jokenhagen, but, since I shall be travelling to Australia in a couple of weeks for a barnstorming three-week lecture-tour (watch this space for dates and venues), I thought it was time to reply to Mr. Rudd. On New Year’s Day I sent him the following letter, but I am not holding my breath for a reply. The unanswerable is seldom answered.

How is it that anyone, even for an instant, can seriously imagine that the doubling of today’s CO2 concentration that the IPCC predicts for this century will have a major and potentially catastrophic influence over the climate? Humankind is too insignificant to make any real difference to global temperature, as anyone with a sense of due proportion can see at once.

The ancient Greeks had a nifty aphorism – panta metrios. This means, “All things in due proportion”. Every great civilization has a sense of due proportion: every failing civilization loses it. Our classe politique, worldwide, has lost it big-time