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Hooray, it's spring!

Yesterday was the first of September and if you go by the meteorological calendar, it marked the end of winter and the start of spring.

According to weather commentators, spring has come early this year, with the usual strong westerly winds already kicking in right across the country.

Temperatures are also higher than normal for this time of year.

I'm not complaining.

However...

The presence of the mega/uber/killer/[insert clickbait adjective here] El Niño event and the higher than average global temperatures may have nudged things along a little this year.

The media, always looking for a reason to scare us into clicking on their headlines, continues to hype up the magnitude and potentially devastating effects of the situation and is predicting bad things for at least the next six months.

Am I worried?

Not one bit.

If we have an extremely hot and dry summer I will enjoy it to the maximum because, at 73 years of age, I know I don't have a hell of a lot of summers left to enjoy.

The battle between those who believe in climate change and those who call it a hoax continues to intensify right now with point and counter-point being exchanged on virtually all the social media platforms.

The recent flash-flooding in Nepal with its tragic outcome has been blamed on climate change promoting the melting of glaciers that acted as a dam, holding back that huge wall of water. Others have said that the region where the glaciers are found had experienced colder than normal weather this year.

Who's right?

Well it seems that the climate change deniers (well at least some of them) have been making stuff up. Records indicate that the region where the glaciers are located has actually had higher than normal temperatures, probably acting as a catalyst for this disaster. What's more, this part of the world seems to be warming at twice the rate of the global average.

I think the evidence to support the assertion that we're seeing planet-wide warming over a sustained period is irrefutable. The more important question is: what amount of this warming is directly attributable to humans?

There appears to be a correlation between increased CO2 emissions and climate change but, as anyone who took a moment to stop eating their lunch and listen to the science teacher at high school will know, correlation is not causation.

History has proven that there are a huge number of factors affecting climate within our tiny ecosphere. Solar emissions, volcanic eruptions, natural climate cycles, holding your tongue at the right angle -- all these things and more can influence which way the thermometer moves over time.

I think the sensible thing to do is recognise that we really don't know exactly how much effect our emissions are having but it would be naive to suggest that they have no effect at all. Correlation may not prove causation but it doesn't disprove it either.

The most sensible approach to the issue is to take the safe, conservative option and assume that our activities are having an effect. If that's the case then reducing our emissions to the minimum practicable would seem to be the undeniably logical way forward.

Even if the dramatic slashing of greenhouse emissions only changes the picture by a few percentage points then it's still worth doing because that's better than not helping at all.

We may be driving headlong into a climate apocalypse which is not entirely of our own making but we'd be stupid if we didn't hit the brake pedal as hard as we possibly can. Even if it buys us only a few short years, that's got to be better than nothing.

So I for one, will be throwing one less tyre on the BBQ this year and trying to hold in my burps and farts in the name of climate stability. Using my escooter (powered almost 100 percent by electricity from renewable sources) will also reduce my carbon footprint.

What will you be doing?

Carpe Diem folks!

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