At the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, National Review Online’s Charles Krauthammer wrote: “The raid on the Western treasuries is on again, but today with a new rationale to fit current ideological fashion. With socialism dead, the gigantic heist is now proposed as a sacred service of the newest religion: environmentalism.”

If you had any doubt that environmentalism was not the New Socialism, then please watch the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela get enthusiastic ovations from the Copenhagen delegates as he quotes Karl Marx. Translation after the jump:

We could say that there is a ghost lurking. To paraphrase Karl Marx there is a ghost running through the streets of Copenhagen. And I think that ghost is silent, somewhere in this room, amongst us. Coming through the corridors and underneath. And that ghost is a terrible ghost and nobody wants to name him or her. It’s capitalism. Capitalism is that ghost. Nobody I don’t think wants to name it. Capitalism. I’ve also been struck by some of the signs outside this conference. One sign in particular that reads, “Don’t change the climate … change the system!” I particularly liked that one and would add to that by saying that by changing the system, we could save the planet. The destructive model of capitalism is eradicating life.

The Heritage Foundation’s Steven Groves and Ben Lieberman are live at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference reporting from a conservative perspective. Follow their reports on The Foundry and at the Copenhagen Consequences Web site.