France has its environmentalist non-conformists, as do the Czechs and so many others now. The list is growing. Thank goodness for that. Bloomberg:

The most conspicuous doubter in France is Claude Allegre, a former education minister and a physicist by profession. His new book, Ma vérité sur la planète (”My Truth About the Planet”), doesn’t mince words.

He calls Gore a “crook” presiding over an eco-business that pumps out cash. As for Gore’s French followers, the author likens them to religious zealots who, far from saving humanity, are endangering it. Driven by a Judeo-Christian guilt complex, he says, French greens paint worst-case scenarios and attribute little-understood cycles to human misbehavior.

Allegre doesn’t deny that the climate has changed or that extreme weather has become more common. He instead emphasizes the local character of these phenomena. While the icecap of the North Pole is shrinking, the one covering Antarctica — or 92 percent of the Earth’s ice — is not, he says. Nor have Scandinavian glaciers receded, he says. To play down these differences by basing forecasts on a global average makes no sense to Allegre.

He dismisses talk of renewable energies, such as wind or solar power, saying it would take a century for them to become a serious factor in meeting the world’s energy demands. To his relief, France has taken another path: Almost 80 percent of its electricity comes from nuclear reactors. What’s more, France has a talent for eating its cake and having it, too: Although it signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the country is nowhere near meeting the agreed targets.

So others around the world apparently think that Al Gore is some sort of dope or ignoramous or con artist. That’s refreshing. Alas, free thinking in France and the EU has its limits. Bloomberg again:

France bans smoking in cafes, hotels and clubs on Jan. 1, stamping out the habit popularized by Jean-Paul Sartre puffing Gauloises in hazy brasseries. In Germany, 11 of the country’s 16 states plan similar restrictions for 2008. Six of those, including Berlin and Bavaria, start Jan. 1. France banned smoking in offices and public places this year. Germany prohibits puffers at train stations and federal buildings. The limits are part of the European Union’s public health plan initiated in 1985.

You may like or dislike smoking as you wish. We’ve always enjoyed the pungent fumes of Gitanes in the Paris cafe air; and the aroma of pipe tobacco seems positively pleasant to us. Chacun à son goût. What we abhor is the odor of government regulation of such petty freedoms, as it makes the infringement of greater freedoms all the more acceptable.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Democrats, EU, General, Law, Republicans, idiots!, radical chic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.