AFP: Spain's ex-prime minister blasts 'new religion' of climate change

MADRID (AFP) — Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar Wednesday dismissed climate change as a "new religion" that is drawing hundreds of billions of euros at a time of economic crisis.

Aznar made the remarks at the presentation of a book by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, "Blue Planet in Green Shackles", in which he also questions the widely held theories about climate change.

"In these times of global cooling of the international economy ... the standard bearers of the climatic apocalypse demand hundreds of billions of euros" to combat global warming, said Aznar, who was conservative prime minister from 1996 to 2004.

"They want to throw onto the bonfire anyone who, like Vaclav Klaus, questions the new religion," he said.

"The slightest doubt on the man-made origin of climate change is cause of automatic ex-communication."