By Einar Du Rietz

Two of the more intriguing accusations I got thrown at me in Copenhagen were: “Climate Hater” and “Weather Denier”.

Funny, but strange. I’m convinced that cursing along, hating the ever changing climate is about as constructive as trying to steer a sailing boat by shouting orders to the winds. Either one would just drive you mad (and possibly injured). Denying the weather seems more promising, but equally dangerous. Is that what you do when you take that boat out in spite of the approaching storm?

here’s no room to deny the record breaking cold winter right now. Yo might enjoy the complete silence from the alarmists in Copenhagen, who really picked the wrong year for the meeting, or you may rejoice over the increasing polar ice and the happy polar bears, but the problems are real.

More than 200 dead, just from the cold, in Poland alone. Numerous other victims all over Europe, and the US. Disrupted communications, often fatal traffic accidents, broken limbs on slippery sidewalks, power failures and skyrocketing electricity bills tell the story.

The lesson is to be prepared, and luckily, most people in the developed world are. We have different forms of heating, some in rural areas with two or more alternative sources. We have sound clothing, stocked up food supplies, winter adjusted tires, cell phones, heated cars, sometimes even functional emergency health care. At least most advanced hospitals have several back up systems in case of a black out.

That’s not because we decided to change our lifestyles in Copenhagen, stopped burning fossil fuels or discourage technological development. It’s thank’s to the fact that we never really did that. If you live in Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Austria and some other countries, you most likely also have the chance to hide yourself from the cold in a steaming sauna. That’s what I do, every day, and I’m not sitting there hating neither climate nor weather.  I celebrate that I have won the battle so far.