Australian Prime Minister Mocks 'Peeved Politician's' Global Warming Hysteria

The Prime Minister, John Howard, is proposing his own inconvenient truth after finding the movie of that name not to his liking. An Inconvenient Truth, starring the former US vice-president Al Gore, "showed a degree of the peeved politician [with] the constant jibes at the Bush Administration," Mr Howard said yesterday. He urged Australians who think nuclear power is a "horrific thought" to consider the forthcoming report which is expected to find that nuclear power will become more economical as the cost of reducing greenhouse emissions makes coal-fired electricity more expensive. Mr Howard, who is believed to have seen An Inconvenient Truth only recently, said he did not need to be persuaded of the need to reduce greenhouse gases. But he said "it is not going to overwhelm us tomorrow, we are not going to drown in the sea in a couple of weeks' time … we have to be sensible and measured and calm in our responses…" The Prime Minister, John HowardHis remarks came as an expert report on uranium found that ill-informed community suspicion of the radioactive mineral has added to the obstacles in development of Australia's uranium industry. "The opposition, however, is mainly due to a significant misalignment between public concern and the objective risk. While risks from uranium are carefully measured and relatively low, the public perception of risk is relatively high," says the Government-commissioned report by the Uranium Industry Framework group, chaired by the Melbourne engineer and industrialist, Dr John White. The report calls for a national "stewardship" plan to ensure Australia's huge uranium deposits - the world's largest - are developed to maximise value and minimise risks to safety, the environment and community. It calls for reforms to remove constraints on the transport of uranium in Australia and internationally, for steps to maximise the benefits for indigenous communities affected by uranium mining, and for more effective community education about uranium. It says that the level of regulation of the Australian uranium industry "may add to the perceived level of risk associated with uranium mining and perhaps hinders the public's understanding of the actual level of risk". Alec Marr, of the Wilderness Society, said the intent of the report was to run a massive campaign for the nuclear industry.