To the great surprise of those who were sure climate change was our biggest problem, John Howard has said that our greatest moral challenge is, like those of proud generations before us, "to build a prosperous, secure and fair Australia".

If Howard's English is not your first language, here's a translation:

"Stuff the environment. Let the rich get richer and make damn sure everyone is busy being terrified by something else."

An 'Age' reader provided another useful intepretation:

"Let's borrow more and more so that we can consume more and more and have the economy grow more and more and to hell with the greenhouse gases. Sounds like a pretty good moral challenge to me."
John McCredie, Toorak (The Age, Wednesday 25th April 2007)

The Observer: Sunday June 19, 2005

Recognizing the problem of potential global climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988.

The role of the IPCC is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.