Climate change vs Global warming

When I was in Year 6 we did a school unit about the Greenhouse Effect and the hole in the ozone layer. In 1988 the biggest environmental issue was the phasing out of CFCs to halt the destruction of the ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere. I can remember we all had to write letters to CEOs asking them to please stop using CFCs in their products. I wrote to Rexona, and the letter I received in response went in my keep box. I was pretty proud that the big important people at the big company had taken the time to write back to little me, a Year 6 kid in Tamworth.

Anyway, that is 23 years ago now, and today the big focus of our environmental eyes is on the issue of climate change. Most specifically here in Australia on the introduction of a tax on carbon pollution which is about to be put through Parliament. In the meantime, the terminology has continued to shift along with the progress of the scientists. Greenhouse effect is a term rarely heard, it morphing into global warming a number of years back, and finally more recently into climate change, specifically man made climate change.

I am not a scientist. I stopped studying science as soon as I was able to in school. But I know that there are different experts in different fields, and that the study of science is a continually evolving pursuit. And so the terminology has to keep pace with the discoveries, and hence climate change is a more appropriate title for the issue at hand than either of its predecessors. In my layman's understanding, it's about how humans have changed the climate of the planet - hotter summers, colder winters, more extreme weather events.

Anyway, today it was really cold in Canberra, snow clouds and icy wind making for a truly bleak July Tuesday.  Queensland has been having an unusually cold start to the winter.  But is this evidence that climate change isn't happening!?!?!?  All too often I hear and see comments like "Global warming hey? Well you weren't in Canberra today".  I understand why the terminology has had to change, but for many the old words are still what come to mind, and a cold winter's day is taken to mean the whole phenomenon is an elaborate con.

And this is my pet peeve of the day. May I declare, one cold day does not mean the climate isn't being impacted by humanity, snow on the Brindabellas does not mean that we should all just go on as we have been and pretend that all is fine and dandy. And even if the climate scientists are all wrong - which I doubt, they know a whole lot more about this stuff than I do - is that a reason to continue raping and pillaging this planet until there are no natural resources or wilderness areas left?  No, I thought not.