“In February 2008, a UK columnist delightedly noted that Arctic sea ice was growing – no need to worry about climate change after all, folks. What he had discovered, however, was winter.”

Remember Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma? He and his family built an igloo in Washington DC during last February’s cold snap and had a fine old time sneering at climate change science. The signs outside the snow house read “Honk if you love global warming” and “Al Gore’s new home“.

The good senator’s been remarkably quiet lately. Maybe he’s feeling the heat. In which case I trust that he’s contemplating a few stats:

• June was the hottest month ever recorded worldwide.
• Ditto for the first 6 months of 2010.
• Heat waves across Europe, Asia and North America.
• Senator Inhofe’s home state of Oklahoma, was warned this week of “dangerous heat index values” of up to 110°F.
• Heat related crop failures across central Asia and North Africa.
• Temperature reached 34°C in Moscow.

Perhaps Inhofe’s stranded in a train after the heat buckled the track in Washington.

Someone in my local paper in Whanganui was joining the denial chorus after we had a week of beautiful sunny winter days with accompanying frosty mornings. Just the sort of weather climate change science predicts.

In isolation, none of these weather events are indicative of climate change. As climate scientists keep pointing out, we should not confuse local weather with global climate.

But if you don’t see a trend arising yet you’re not paying attention.

It’s not just about climate change… Jonathan Schell is an insightful writer and scholar. A man of many accomplishments. He has elegantly summed up my generation’s legacy to our children’s children in this quote:

“Taken in its entirety, the increase in mankind’s strength has brought about a decisive, many-sided shift in the balance of strength between man and the earth.” “Nature, once a harsh and feared master, now lies in subjection and needs protection against man’s powers.”

“Yet because man, no matter what intellectual and technical heights he may scale, remains embedded in nature, the balance has shifted against him too, and the threat that he poses to the Earth is a threat to him as well.”

Believe it. Those cupfuls of oil add up. Whether you’re a climate change evangelist or a climate change sceptic, you can’t escape the fact that we’re fouling our grandchildren’s nest and squandering their heritage. Whether or not you believe that our output of greenhouse gas is contributing to climate change, it’s undeniable that the measures which need to be addressed in order to limit pollution and to husband non-renewable energy sources are the same measures as those which the proponents of anthropogenic climate change promote.

One world, one people, one environment, one chance

If nothing else disturbs you, contemplate the source of funding for Al Qaeda, Hamas, Abu Nidal, Islamic Jihad and dozens of other groups. Every time we buy petroleum based fuels we’re contributing to their cause. Those groups obtain most of their funding from oil money: mainly, but not exclusively, from Iran and America’s bosom buddies in Saudi Arabia. We’re funding an openly declared war upon ourselves. A quote from the Middle East Forum in 2003:

“The Saudi government has admitted to spending more than $87 billion over the last decade in an effort to spread Wahhabism. This money has been spent on the creation of Mosques, schools, and other institutions that have constituted the breeding grounds for the foot soldiers of the global Islamic terrorist movement.”

“Political considerations, and oil, have prevented Washington from holding the Saudis accountable for their role in promoting terrorism.”
A briefing by Rachel Ehrenfeld September 19, 2003

Eventually, the rising cost of oil is likely to be seen to have been a very good thing in every conceivable way. We only get one bite of the cherry.