Christian Democratic Party senate team leader in NSW, Pastor Paul Green, has aligned his party with Cardinal George Pell in the global warming debate.

"Archbishop Pell is a very scholarly gentleman," said Paul Green. "And I daresay that he is much better educated than Al Gore."

"It makes good sense to look after our planet for future generations. The Christian Democratic Party believes that the world is a creation of God.

So in addition to good sense, we have a sound theological argument for looking after our planet.

Looking after our planet incorporates respecting the natural environment, helping preserve endangered species, and, very important, avoiding waste.

When we talk about avoiding waste, there is a high priority in avoiding waste of energy. It makes sense to turn off a light when a room is empty, and not to drive a V8 when a four cylinder engine is equal to the task. It is also obvious that for health reasons alone, it is desirable to minimize the pollution created by human activity.

Presently there is a massive worldwide campaign directed at convincing the residents of industrialised societies that their normal activities are presently threatening to destroy the world as we know it through climate change. This process used to be known as global warming, but in recent years, with the evidence of global warming becoming less convincing, the emphasis has shifted. Dr Timothy Barrows of the Australian National University was on Friday 5 October 2007 quoted as cautioning that global warming might cause an ice age.

We are now expected to attribute all possible kinds of bad weather to CLIMATE CHANGE. Fringe advocates of the climate change theory have even gone to the extent of blaming tsunamis and earthquakes upon climate change.

The climate change movement is code for a widespread determination to force upon humanity very significant and potentially very harmful changes in lifestyle. In the minds of some, "Climate change" has become a pseudo religion. More than that, the extreme protagonists of this religion are exhibiting an unpleasant

level of intolerance towards unbelievers, and they try to establish their Climate Change religion as the new orthodoxy.

The Inquisition put to death people whose only crime was to be insufficiently pious for the tastes of the inquisitors. Before 1865 the Czarists punished those who opposed serfdom. Communists and Nazis and Fascists have done their

best to extinguish opposition to their ideas. What begins with contempt towards those who reject the current orthodoxy in due course expands to violence.

Already people who express doubts about Climate Change are customarily subjected to a level of contempt properly reserved for individuals – such as the leader of Iran – who deny that the Holocaust occurred.

The extreme advocates of the climate change religion want Australia to stop exporting coal. This would involve denying millions of people in poor countries the right to electricity which gives them the opportunity of jobs, transportation, warmth and light for reading. An end to Australian coal exports would compel the return to poverty of millions of innocent people who have in the most recent one or two generations escaped from poverty.

Moreover, an end to coal exports would cause an environmental disaster, with millions more people being forced to turn to cut down trees for fuel. The biggest possible contribution we can make to reforestation is the provision of economical energy sources.

Australia is uniquely placed to help the poorer nations of the world climb out of poverty, by the provision of energy, energy which among other things protects the forests of the nations receiving our energy.

Australia supplies coal for electricity and coal for steel-making. We supply natural gas which has a multitude of uses. And of course we supply uranium, which has the wonderful advantage of not generating carbon dioxide when it is used for fuel.

We have an obligation to preserve the planet, and that includes preserving existing forests and encouraging reforestation.

The Christian Democratic Party takes seriously Australia’s obligation to use our God-given resources to help the poor nations of the world reach the living standards which we enjoy.

Accordingly the Christian Democratic Party promotes responsible conservation. We reject the demands of the extreme protagonists of climate change who will not be satisfied until most of us are starving to death in the dark.

Climate change is a cyclical phenomenon principally driven by solar activity, and it is possible that human activity is a contributing factor. Whether or not that is true, we should all focus on avoidance of waste.

Very many scientists reject the idea that humans have any major effect upon the climate. I’ll quote only one, the distinguished Australian Mr William R. Kininmonth M.Sc., M.Admin., Dip. Met., the author of the 2004 book "Climate Change: A Natural Hazard".

Mr Kininmonth has had a career in meteorological science and policy spanning more than 40 years. From 1986 to 1998 he headed Australia's National Climate Centre, monitoring Australia's changing climate and advising government on the extent and severity of climate extremes. He coordinated the scientific and technical review of the 1997-98 El Niño event for the World Meteorological Organization and its input to the United Nations Task Force on El Niño.

As a member of Australia's delegations to the Second World Climate Conference (1990) and the subsequent negotiations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1991-92) he had a close association with the early developments of the climate change debate.

Here is some of what Mr Kininmonth had to say in a recent pamphlet:

Carbon dioxide emissions attributable to human activities in Australia are about 1.5 per cent of the total world emissions from human activities.

Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It is basic to photosynthesis and encourages plant, tree and marine growth. Millions of years ago, when there was a much higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now, forest growth increased dramatically and eventually decayed to form extensive coal deposits.

Worldwide, the peripheries of polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers have been melting for more than 150 years. This melting is consistent with increased solar radiation since the early 1700s. Solar activity has continued to increase over recent decades, albeit not steadily.

We rely on the Sun for warmth, and water vapour (the principal greenhouse gas) ensures that we have a reasonably equable climate. The effect on climate of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions is negligible.

Let’s not be trapped into misdirecting huge amounts of resources into combating "climate change".

Millions of people around the world are victims of AIDS. We should aim at eliminating AIDS. People are dying of hunger and disease. Others suffer cruelly from mental illness, blindness or trauma injuries. They deserve a higher claim on our resources than the false religion of climate change.

Cardinal Pell's calming voice is a welcome contribution at a time when hysteria is far too common.