Tony Abbott Thinks Climate Change Is A Scam

Australia's New Prime Minister Wants To Immediately Dismantle His Country's Fight Against Climate Change


Australia's conservative leader Tony Abbott claims victory in Australia's federal election during an election night function in Sydney September 7, 2013. Abbott swept into office in a landslide election on Saturday as voters punished the outgoing Labor government for six years of turbulent rule and for failing to maximise the benefits of a now fading mining boom.

Tony Abbott, head of the conservative Liberal Party, will be the new Prime Minister of Australia.

He's a pretty controversial guy.

Among the contenders for his most extreme viewpoint is his belief that the science around climate change is "absolute crap."

The full quote, according to a report in the Pyrenes Advocate in the country's southeast, was the following:

The argument is absolute crap. However, the politics of this are tough for us. Eighty percent of people believe climate change is a real and present danger.

In his acceptance speech just a few moments ago, he named scrapping Australia's carbon tax as the very first thing he hopes to accomplish in the next three years.

That being said, Abbott does have a plan, of sorts, to reduce carbon emissions.

It's called Direct Action, and it's supposed to provide $3 billion in grants and subsidies to encourage energy efficiency. There's also an initiative to sell captured carbon to farmers to increase crop yield.

But most scientists don't see the plan as a viable way for reducing emissions, and Abbott has said he will cap the program's budget regardless of whether it gets the country to its bipartisan goal of reducing overall emissions by 5% by 2020.

He also plans to shut down the government's Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which cost $10 billion.

Dismantling the carbon tax probably can't happen overnight as the Liberal Party is  unlikely to win full control of the senate.

But the direction the country is heading in is now clear.