Riley's article has some entertainment value but the bulk of its philosophical musings may be countered by suggesting that she have the same conversation refered to in the article with an industrialist rather than a fellow intellectual. For when asked why he is pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere the industrialist would respond by saying that he is just trying to make people happy - by giving them jobs.
She also suggests that the current fight against climate change is akin to World War II, requiring total mobilisation. A better analogy would be the Vietnam war - one that we have no real hope of winning and, years after its lost, will probably realise that the theorists were wrong and there was no need to fight it in the first place.
Riley also makes several references to the current intergalacial period we are in (the gap between two ice ages - often referred to as the Holocene)), which has gone on much longer than many of the previous intergalacials. No-one knows why it has and any attempt to forecast when it might end is pure speculation in the current state of knowledge. However, Riley characterises the period as humans emerging into Spring which they are turning into summer by deliberate climate change.
A better anology is emerging into summer which is slowly turning into spring. Climate in the holocene is characterised by a regular series of peaks and troughs in temperatures (there is a scholarly journal called Holocene which publishes stuff on this, and its not in dispute), and there is some evidence that the swings are getting weaker (that part is controversial). The climate models beloved by the AGW people are completely useless in explaining any of that stuff. Riley should not want to be remembered as the climate equivalent of the people who argued for continuing the Vietnam war.

Well said, Curmudgeon.

I like the leader: “If our generation can hold back climate change we will have outstripped, and maybe even redeemed, all our forebears.”

Naivety based on Greenpeace lies, and an insult to our forbears. The arrogance of these people is stunning. This one lauds Aristotle, but condemns those still alive or only recently dead. All those expect the warming mongers and human-cause climate change hysterics, that is.

If Aristotle were around today, he would be able to tell her and her fellow naifs about climate change over the ages when there was no industrially generated C02. He would also tell her that nature is the only ‘cure’ for climate change.

Riley is so busy waffling along about other people most of us have never heard of that she forgot to tell us why she believes that the “ideal temperature is 15ºC”. I’m sure that grain growers and other food producers would have something to say about this.

Her final sentence, “That is why I love climate change” is unwitting self-judgement on the huge ego trip she and those of her ilk are on. Perhaps they really know that all the blather and money (carbon taxes and other huge imposts on Australian society) will not make any difference to climate change. Perhaps part of the ‘curing climate change’ is a ploy by the anarchic Left to bring Western society to its knees, which has always been their goal.

It’s a pity for these wreckers that the climate hasn’t been co-operating with very much since 1998.

that's adorable, it really is..

I'm sure if you were an honor student in the late sixties, you would have been out there protesting the Vietnam war, and whatever age you were in, you would be there passionately involved - and loving it!

I hope you eventually give up this goal of "stopping the climate from changing", it's akin to stopping tectonic plate movement. Don't be taken in by this age's arrogant self centered scientists who demand they be given the planet's controls to experiment with, and think they know all there is to know.

Tim Flannery wants to fill the sky with supher dioxide, Penny Wong is frightened of "Carbon Pollution", (does she really see black skies, I can't?) and wants us to do what her scientists say and stop all CO2 emmissions. (stop breathing Penny!)

You are heading for a lifetime of dissapointment if you think changing climate is so simple as reducing CO2 output. Possibly you will find out climate is a rogue if you go too far, what about that? What if you do stop it, what happens then to seasons? Oh, you want to stop climate changing, but still want seasons.. hang on, so you want to control climate? So who gets to set the thermostat, is it a committee? Does the UN set the temperature range .. good luck with that. Does everyone on the planet agree with the way YOU want to fiddle with the controls?

In generations to come when people look back, they may curse the names of people who naively and arrogantly wanted to meddle with the climate, instead of adapting to it.

The nay-saying brutalists are out in force today!

Green philosophy is inwardly morally bankrupt which normally leads to outward piety. This amounts to false religion.
Hariet writes
'We are part of a planetary community, and serving it, through actions both simple and great, is the only thing that can bring us happiness.'

Absolute rubbish. We were created to serve God and people. At the end of the day doing what we were created to do will bring peace and joy. Happiness comes and goes with circumstances in life and earth worshiping and lies about saving the planet will never cleanse us of our inward selfishness and sin. This is only possible through God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blaming our evil forefathers who overall had much more integrity than the me generation is an exercise in sickening self righteousness. The 'humbling responsibility' spoken of is a cloak of pride.

This article goes a long way towards explaining why people are so fond of apocalypse scenarios. Just a dull little cog, working in a boring job! Fear not! You can be a hero saving the planet! Just come up with a suitably tenuous theory that allows you to paint what you and your friends do as 'good' and what everyone else does as 'wicked'. Then you can go on doing the things you like doing and feel virtuous about it. You don't have to disarrange your life; merely write a few articles and attend a few protests while continuing to use the washing machine and the heater and the TV and the PC at home; because, after all, it's what _other people_ do that's really important.

But of course, IF global warming is a real threat to the future of life on this planet then none of this fiddling around the edges is going to be any use at all. The only hope is for the USA to dig out some of the biological weapons it has in cold storage and exterminate everyone but its own citizens, and the sooner the better. It's the logical solution. Oddly enough, I don't see any AGW alarmists advocating that -- yet. Letting someone else fix it doesn't fit well with a messiah complex.