And if CO2 caused global cooling?

Late June in Innsbruck and with temperatures struggling to reach 10 degrees Celsius and snow all over the local mountains the mood of the residents and visitors to Innsbruck is somewhat gloomy. I am a believer in climate change and global warming - when I have pain I go to the doctor, when the car squeaks the mechanic, so when climate scientists give a consensus view that we are facing some devastating climate changes in the future I defer to their view - nightmare scenario as it is. It was a few years ago after the hottest October day on record in the UK that an editor of one of the daily tabloids quipped that being able to wear a t-shirt and BBQ in October was right up his street. The stupidity of the comment has long stayed with me but the underlying sentiment seems to be that in a relatively cool country such as the UK a bit of temperature rise was not all bad. Aside from the impacts on bio-diversity, of population movements, conflict, drought, food price rises and disappearing ski hills I have long wondered how the world might be reacting if atmospheric CO2 was actually cooling the planet and that we were in effect heading toward another ice age? If people thought June in Innsbruck would be accompanied by white peaks would they be moved to action? My gut feeling is that the world would be far more proactive in heading off a period of global cooling than warming. Being warm is something we tend to think of as comforting and secure, being cold leads to discomfort. So is the debate one that needs to be presented differently to engender the significant changes that we are told are required. CO2 is the cause of climate change, with a forecast of greater global temperatures. But if the opposite were true and as I suspect action would follow then we can surmise that the implications for a warmer planet are not being sufficiently well spelt out. Being warm is better than being cold? Well not really and certainly not better than being the way we were when things were in equilibrium a number of decades ago. And if CO2 caused global cooling? The reaction is one we will never know.