On Wednesday, as Ireland basked in temperatures hovering at about 20 degrees celcius in a very early spell of warm weather, many of us probably entertained the idea that this climate change thing wasn't all bad.
Wednesday, however, was also Earth Day, when the issues of global conservation and climate change were highlighted in events around the world, with tree-planting being a particularly popular way to mark the occasion.
When it started, Earth Day was a brilliantly conceived piece of activism, one that made an immediate impact on attitudes towards the environment.
It was born on the back of the surge of idealism and activism that marked the late 1960s. Peace activist John McConnell proposed such a day and pursued it through Unesco, which held it on March 21st, 1970. Almost simultaneously, Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson set up another Earth Day and held it on April 22nd, 1970.
Today, that division is no more, with April 22nd the designated day of celebration, though the UN now styles it as International Mother Earth Day.
The day is also not to be confused with World Environment Day, which is on June 5th and which began in 1972.
Human impact
When these movements began, conservation was focused on the visible impact of human behaviour - primarily environmental degradation, deforestation and pollution - and less on the cumulative effect on our climate caused by all that degradation, deforestation and pollution.
For instance, the first Earth Day is credited with forcing the US government to create the Environmental Protection Agency.
However, 45-years later, the scale of the environmental problems facing the planet are abundantly clear, and the inadequacy of our global political institutions to deal with them is clearer still.
Furthermore, the politicisation of environmentalism has had a drastic impact on the planet’s ability to tackle the root causes of climate change, primarily the burning of fossil fuels.
For example, the partisan divide over climate change currently evident in the US is the culmination of years of successful lobbying on the part of polluters, as well as a political culture that tolerates wilful ignorance.
Given that background, the environmental and political aspects of Earth’s biggest problem can hardly be summarised, let alone addressed, in 24-hours.
Worthy gesture
Which brings us to the obvious point about Earth Day - given the scale of the problems it professes to address, it can only hope to be a grand, worthy gesture of environmental support, rather than a practical day of action.
However, even that effort is complicated by the fact that Earth Day has in recent years become more of a branding exercise than a day of activism, an opportunity for corporations to turn their logos green for the day while spouting about their environmental credentials.
Most of the UN-authorised international observances serve to highlight issues that are all too easily ignored - the entire concept is essentially a publicity stunt for worthy causes.
Lots of them, such as International Day to End Obstetric Fistula and International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, are devoted to raising awareness of issues that affect the most overlooked, voiceless people on our planet - women in the developing world. They are exactly the sort of people who can benefit from short bursts of concentrated attention.
But when applied to climate change, a dedicated awareness day runs a high risk of tokenism. We are at a stage of environmental degradation where a “celebratory” Earth Day arguably sets the wrong tone, as well as sending the wrong message.