Margaret Thatcher var en af de første verdensledere, der forudså konsekvenserne af global opvarmning. Selv om hun senere blev klimaskeptiker, var hun i begyndelsen af 1990’erne bevidst om verdens sande tilstand.
Englands tidligere konservative premierminister, Margaret Thatcher, var klar over farerne ved global opvarming og miljøproblemer langt tidligere end mange andre politiske ledere. Tre citater tegner et billede af Thatcher som en visionær politiker, der bekymrede sig om klimaet og miljøet.
I en tale, der kan genhøres på YouTube, udtaler Thatcher:
“The danger of global warming is as yet unseen but real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of future generations. That prospect is a new factor in human affairs. It is comparable in it’s implications to the discovery of how to split the atom. It’s results could be even more far-reaching. No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have is a life tenancy with a full repairing (udbedring) lease (forpagtning).” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSrBO4_qPzo)
I en tale til The Royal Society i 1988 siger hun blandt andet:
“For generations, we have assumed that the efforts of mankind would leave the fundamental equilibrium of the world’s systems and atmosphere stable. But it is possible that with all these enormous changes (population, agricultural, use of fossil fuels) concentrated into such a short period of time, we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of this planet itself”.
(http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346)
Ifølge treehugger.com siger hun i en tale i 1990:
“The IPCC tells us that, on present trends, the earth will warm up faster than at any time since the last ice age….
Many of the precautionary actions that we need to take would be sensible in any event. It is sensible to improve energy efficiency and use energy prudently; it’s sensible to develop alternative and sustainable and sensible … it’s sensible to improve energy efficiency and to develop alternative and sustainable sources of supply; it’s sensible to replant the forests which we consume; it’s sensible to re-examine industrial processes; it’s sensible to tackle the problem of waste”.
(http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/margaret-thatcher-british-prime-minister-1925-2013.html)
