"What if it's all a hoax and we've created a better world for nothing?"

Anthropogenic climate change is happening, whether you believe it or not. That's the beauty of science. It doesn't matter whether you accept what every scrap of evidence available indicates. It doesn't care. It just objectively is. Just as a dropped ball will fall towards the ground even if you believe with all your heart that it will levitate, so too evolution by natural selection is happening and anthropogenic climate change is happening even if you really, really don't think it is. A billion people could think it doesn't happen and yet it still would.

The denialists-or "sceptics" as they label themselves (a misnomer, since one thing they are not is sceptics) often point to data indicating-or so they claim-that the current warming trends are simply natural occurrences. Or that the whole thing is a hoax and Global Warming simply isn't happening. A great deal of people jumped on misquoted, out-of-context segments of emails from the East Anglia University, causing a crippling public relations disaster to climate scientists.

Let's be blunt here. The denialists have no argument. The actions taken to reduce negative human influences on the planet are creating a better world for us and our descendants to live in. If it means a few inconveniences like walking or using public transport every so often, so what? The only arguments one could possibly use against the measures that can be taken are entirely selfish ones, so the denialists choose to be deliberately dishonest in their tactics and smear the honest scientists who toil in obscurity, yet leave an impact on future generations that few of us could ever hope to match.

Anthropogenic climate change doesn't have to happen. The word "anthropogenic" means "man-made". It happens because we humans make it happen. As individuals, we can't hope to make much of a dent in halting global warming, even if we are a Chris Taylor. In our thousands or even millions, however, we can do a great deal. On Saturday, at 8:30 in the evening, turn off something. Your computer, perhaps. Or even just an unnecessary light. Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people around the world will be doing this as part of "Earth Hour 2011". It will make bugger all difference. Let's be honest. And yet, the power of this simple action in raising consciousness will have a more subtle yet far more powerful and far-reaching effect over longer timescales.