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The French have a saying: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Ever since their emergence as a political force a little more than two centuries ago, fear-mongering and character assassination have been the tactics of choice of left-wing ideologues when neither the facts, nor common sense, support their arguments or political agenda. The raging debate over climate change, and the tactics being employed, is a good illustration of this. Confronted with the fact-based criticism of an increasing number of scientists who say that cyclical climate change is as natural as the sunrise and sunset - and not due to human activity - the left reverts to type, substituting ugly invective for civil debate.

The latest example of this proclivity is their accusation that scientists who point out that the evidence does not support the claim that climate change is man-made are "climate change deniers" (something that they manifestly are not), apparently on par with Holocaust deniers. Their aim, led by the likes of Al Gore in the United States and David Suzuki in Canada, is not the acquisition of knowledge in pursuit of sound policy, but rather, the acquisition of political power in pursuit of their radical agenda. What they are doing is bad enough because it's exactly the opposite of what scientific inquiry should be, but it's especially repugnant inasmuch as they seek to usurp the horror of the Holocaust to score cheap, partisan political points. Nobody should be surprised by this though name-calling is exactly the sort of thing that the left does whenever its orthodoxy is challenged.

Nobody should doubt that the debate over whether or not climate change is induced by human activity is a left-right debate either. It may well be that good stewardship of the environment is a goal that transcends political fault lines, but the method whereby this goal is to be achieved does not. Trusting in the good sense of common people, the "right" that is to say conservatives say "let's all do our part"; trusting no-one except themselves and their elite, theoretical gurus, the "left" that is to say socialists, liberals or progressives demand "give us power".

This is important to understand, particularly for people of faith, who have embraced both the myth that climate change is man-made and its purveyors in alarming numbers. The consequence of consummating this newly discovered marriage of convenience can only be catastrophic for the faith

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