Booed by small children, pursued by a polar bear, Howard speaks against local wind farm

Polar bear confronts Tory leader Michael Howard

After the Tory leader's impassioned speech last month about the need for strong leadership on climate change, one might think Michael Howard's appearance at a public inquiring about a local wind farm would be equally enthusiastic. Instead the opposition leader is attempting to scupper a proposed wind farm in his constituency.

Outside the public inquiry over the proposed Romney Marsh wind farm, Howard was greeted by booing local children carrying windmills and a Polar bear carrying a placard: "HOWARD YOU LIKE YOUR HOME TO MELT?"

Polar bears are just one of many species threatened by global warming, and wind farms like the one proposed for Romney Marsh are the best way to protect our climate.

And when it comes to climate change, Howard agrees that it is one of the world's greatest challenges "Britain and the global community are still moving too slowly. The international effort on climate change desperately needs renewed leadership."

While Howard comes out strong against climate change, it is pretty obvious Howard's actions are motivated by narrow political ambitions.

The Tory leader is the vice-chair of the anti-wind group in his Folkestone constituency and has sought to make political capital out of his opposition to the Romney Marsh project.

If this is Howard's idea of leadership on climate change then the world's threatened species really do have a lot to fear, as do us humans. Global warming is already killing 150,000 people a year and things are set to get a lot worse. Without renewable energy schemes like this one we'll see worsening climate change and the construction of new nuclear power stations like the ones at Dungeness.