Tony Abbott tells Heritage Foundation ‘every extreme weather’ is wrongly linked to climate change’

Tony Abbott says ‘every extreme weather event’ in Australia is being used as ‘proof of climate change’ by eco fanatics who have become ‘religious’ in their beliefs

  • The former prime minister said dangerous bushfires were inevitable in Australia 
  • Tony Abbott was addressing the right-wing US think tank Heritage Foundation 
  • The volunteer firie said bushfires were wrongly being linked to climate change 
  • He backed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s stance on  climate change

Tony Abbott says climate change zealots are wrongly using ‘every extreme weather event’ as undeniable proof of global warming, with the former prime minister denying it was the main cause of Australia’s unprecedented bushfire crisis.

Mr Abbott launched a stinging rebuke of eco warriors at an event for the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, in Washington D.C. on Tuesday – where he also lauded US President Donald Trump’s first term in office. 

The former Liberal party leader and volunteer firefighter said deadly bushfires were inevitable in a country like Australia and pointed to the Dorothea Mackeller poem ‘My Country’ which says it is the home ‘of droughts and flooding rains’ as proof. 

Mr Abbott hit out at alarmists who he accused of being almost ‘religious’ in their beliefs that climate change was sparking the run of extreme weather events which has devastated swathes of Australia.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott (pictured) has claimed climate change supporters try to use the trend as proof for every extreme weather event 

‘I’m not one of those people who sees the current bushfires as confirmation of all we have feared about the changing climate,’ he told The Sydney Morning Herald.

‘I see the current bushfires as the sort of thing we are always going to be prone to in a country such as ours.’

Mr Abbott said those who believe climate change is the most important factor in extreme weather events use it as the reason for fires, floods and Hurricane Sandy – which devastated the Carribean in 2012.

‘If you think climate change is the most important thing, everything can be turned to proof. I think that to many it has almost a religious aspect to it,’ he said.

Mr Abbott, Australia’s 28th prime minister, led the country between 2013 and 2015 while served 19 years as a volunteer firefighter for the Rural Fire Service.

'I'm not one of those people who sees the current bushfires as confirmation of all we have feared about the changing climate,' Mr Abbott said (pictured speaking in Sydney last November)

‘I’m not one of those people who sees the current bushfires as confirmation of all we have feared about the changing climate,’ Mr Abbott said (pictured speaking in Sydney last November) 

Mr Abbott supported Prime Minister Scott Morrison's (pictured) position that climate change had a role in causing bushfires

Mr Abbott supported Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s (pictured) position that climate change had a role in causing bushfires 

He supported Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s stance that climate change had some role in causing bushfires, and praised his response to the state of emergency caused by the fires.

Mr Morrison said earlier this week hazard reduction was just as important in reducing bushfire risk as emissions reduction. 

The Prime Minister has been under fire for his response to the bushfire crisis, which have killed almost 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

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