I loathe the cold and love the warm. Who doesn’t? I grew up in Ireland where spring and winter were always very cold. In the 1950s, central heating was rare. We stayed warm by burning coal in open grates and used kerosene oil in a heater. Many nights, we children huddled around the coal fire or heater trying to stay warm doing our homework. We suffered painful chilblains, itching and swelling of the toes because of the cold.

We burnt coal and oil, fossil fuels and never knew we were adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and warming up the planet. Our family’s contribution to global warming was minuscule, but with millions of homes, factories and furnaces, trains and tractors, power stations, and ships and vehicles all over the world burning these fuels,  the carbon dioxide  accumulated over the past 200 years, and the planet has got steadily warmer.

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