The Opposition leader, Tony Abbott’s pitch to major polluters reached new heights today. Addressing a conference in Brisbane, Mr Abbott said he would out-source the protection of the environment and impacted communities to the States and Territories eager to fast track massive new industrial developments. This would effectively remove environmental safeguards and destroy the cornerstone of community protection from the impacts of such projects.

The same month he made the above speech he also revealed that he actually harbours a true love for the environment and how he acquired this new age, alpha masculinity:

Ever since I was old enough to understand the term, I have regarded myself as a conservationist.

As a child, I used to play in the gullies and creeks surrounding the Lane Cove National Park. I wasn’t as careful then as now about protecting fauna, such as the red-bellied black snake, but I loved the bush for its potential for adventure and sense of solitude.

In the valley behind our house, I first learnt to sleep under the stars. On canoeing trips, I learnt to read a map. On student bush walks, I developed a sense of direction.

Reading a map on a river. In a canoe! Wow. What a life changing moment that must have been. It clearly made him an expert in the field on the environment. Take these pearls of wisdom, most likely acquired from sleeping under the stars:

• Climate change is a relatively new political issue, but it’s been happening since the earth’s beginning. The extinction of the dinosaurs is thought to have been associated with climate change.
• These so-called nasty big polluters are the people that keep the lights on. I mean, let’s not forget how essential these people are to the business of daily life.
• I am, as you know, hugely unconvinced by the so-called settled science on climate change. […] I mean, I just think that the science is highly contentious, to say the least.
• The climate has changed over the eons and we know from history, at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth the climate was considerably warmer than it is now. And then during what they called the Dark Ages it was colder. Then there was the medieval warm period.

He no longer kills red-bellied black snakes and despises people who keep lights on. No wonder people such as Andrew Bolt rate him more credible than most of the world’s scientists. Scientists spend at least three years studying at university to become knowledgeable in their field. Tony Abbott reads maps. While floating down a river. How could you doubt him? How could you doubt a person who has a sense of direction because he walked in the bush yet needs a map to paddle a canoe?

On a serious note, The Guardian UK, in its recent article “Australian climate outlook remains bleak with Tony Abbott out for revenge” have provided us with a better understanding of Abbott’s feeling for the environment:

In Australia, decades of hard-fought conservation gains are at risk of being wiped out after 14 September. That’s when the incumbent Labor government faces oblivion at the federal election, at the hands of the conservative Liberal Party.

For environment groups and climate campaigners, things have never looked bleaker.

This is despite the introduction of a carbon price, billions of dollars for clean energy projects, a landmark extension of marine national parks, and recent news that carbon emissions from the world’s largest per- capita emitter have actually reduced.

Unfortunately, conservation and climate change have not been a national priority since the controversial introduction of the carbon price. In Australia, the Labor minority government, supported by the Greens, passed historic carbon-pricing legislation that charged polluters for their emissions.

At that time, the five or so largest environment groups, supported by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, ran a public awareness campaign – “Say Yes” – to raise support for the carbon price.

Since then, the conservative opposition, led by climate change denying Tony Abbott and supported by extreme elements in the Murdoch-owned press, has waged a relentless campaign against the carbon price.

The fear is that Abbott’s climate denialism, coupled with a desire to get even with groups who opposed him, will see environment groups targeted.

I think we’ve got some worries ahead of us. We could be handing the future of our environment over to a man who needs a map to paddle a canoe.