Is global warming a good thing?

Three years ago I asked, "What if global warming is a good thing?"

Folks my age and maybe a little younger can remember when the Environmental Apocaplypse was not global warming but global cooling. So let us suppose two things: first that global warming really is occurring and human attention to it can reverse it, and second, that we do reverse it. Are we then to agree that a cooler earth really is in our best interests? Why?

I've always kind of suspected that underlying much of environmentalism is a desire for the impossible: stasis. For the earth will either get warmer or cooler, but it definitely won't stay the same. Even if everyone were to agree that the globe really is warming, can we please see some scientifically-sound documentation that it is worse than the alternative?

Satellite shot of England covered by snow.

Well, here is the alternative: England, 2010: "Britain is freezing to death."

The winter death toll is set to rise steeply as official figures show that nine elderly people died every hour because of cold-related illnesses last year. The number of deaths linked to cold over the four months of last ­winter reached nearly 28,000. ...

Last week Lillian Jenkinson, 80, and William Wilson, 84, were found dead in the gardens of their homes 70 miles apart in Cumbria. Both are thought to have lain ­undetected in sub-zero temperatures for hours.

The temps are hardest on the elderly, who are most vulnerable to freezing temps. It doesn't help matters, either, that "pensioners" (retirees) in Britain are pensioned by the government, a payment that includes a winter fuel allowance. But heating costs are so high that, "Many have been using their free travel ­passes to spend the day riding on buses while others are seeking refuge from the cold in libraries and shopping centres."

Here in America, according to the US National Center for Health Statistics, from January through March 800 more people die per day during December-March than the rest rest of the year. That makes 95,000 additional deaths per year during the cold months compared to the warmer ones.

So tell me again, why is global warming supposed to be a bad thing?