I have been thinking about what if it had been global cooling instead of global warming. Not so much in terms of ecological impacts, but about how we humans would have reacted to it. The term “global warming” is a little out dated, and we mostly use “climate change” instead. In Australia the term was switched out during the 2007 election, won by labour with their promises of environmental protections (that they quickly backtracked once elected).
Global Warming vs Climate Change
“Climate change” is more encompassing of climatic changes including warming, but also increase in storms, droughts, floods, fires etc.
However the term ‘global warming’ has been used for many years, and is still sometimes used. The idea that the world is warming has been around for a long time. In the 1950s an American scientist (also an inventor and women’s rights campaigner), Eunice Foote discovered and published a study showing the capacity of certain gases to trap heat from the sun, and described and increase in these gases would warm the climate.
In 1938, engineer Guy Stewart Callendar recorded temperatures that showed an increase in temperatures and first pitched the idea that the globe was warming. No one was particularly worried about global warming. After all, everyone likes warm weather right? Warm is Summer, picnics and icecreams.
Would You Rather Too Hot Or Too Cold?
I have noticed a trend that warmth in general is seen as good, and cold is bad. Even thinking about the words used to describe people. A kind good person is warm, and bad person is cold. In our folklore we celebrate the winter solstice with Christmas (evolved from the pagan winter solstice celebration ‘yule’). And it’s not just in culture, its in our laws.
In Australia, we have laws that dictate how cold a home can be before it is deemed unfit for habitation. All homes must be adequately heated and insulated according to regulation, and are required to provide a heating unit in Victoria. However, there is no law to say how hot a home can be before it becomes inhabitable. Though this is hopefully going to be changed soon.
Heat is the deadliest of the natural disasters we face in Australia. Outstripping bushfires, floods and storms. Heat in fact contributes to the other disasters. But it’s not something that we hear about often as a serious environmental hazard.
What If It Had Been Global Cooling?
So what if it had been global cooling instead? I think the response would have been vastly distant. It seems to me that people fear the cold a lot more than heat. Imagine if it had been called ‘global freezing’? Images of the ice ages, snowball earth, blizzards and snow might cross your mind.
If it had been global cooling, we would have been thinking about how frost would affect crops (even though heat kills crops just as easily). How we will protect ourselves from cold related disease (even though warming is causing diseases to be spread more frequently). How we would get through the Winters (even though heat is the biggest killer of all the natural disasters in Australia). How we would have conspiracy theorist saying that the climate was actually warming (it is).
Part of this I think comes from Europe. Western countries have long been the superpowers of the world. Europe faces cold winters and long nights, filled with ice, snow, sleet and cold winds. The Summertime on the other hand, doesn’t come with any particular hazards until recently.
This is not to say that European countries don’t act on climate change, some have done spectacularly in this regard, but its more about the ideas that come from living in colder climates has affected how we view, deal with and talk about climate change. There are many layers of why there hasn’t been enough action, like politics, business, other priorities etc but I think culture is a part of the contributing factors.
Overall, changing the wording ‘global warming’ to climate change was a smart move. But I still wonder if it had been ‘global cooling’, would it have been different?
Leave a Reply