One of the things that I think is the most unfortunate about all of this is the fact that laying the blame at the feet of humans is what gets most deniers hot (ha ha) under the collar. Well, that and the fact that Al Gore is the face of the global warming debate. All that aside though, regardless of why (or who's to blame) the earth is heating, and the potential for devastation is the same, regardless of the source. You need only look back in the geological record and see that heating cycles (as well as cooling cycles) have wrecked havoc on communities and ecoystems. It is only because humans had no written records or even oral records to pass down during those cycles when they were present that we don't have that human perspective, thus the deniers think that we will be able to somehow "weather the storm" regardless of what happens to the rest of the planet. I think they think that we'll be able to think/build ourselves out of it - and maybe we'll be able to, but the question really is, will we be able to live (perhaps survive is a better word) on a planet without sea ice, with sea levels much above where they are today, etc. etc.
I have little doubt that we have contributed greatly to this cycle of warming and that we may still have time to do something (although it may be too late) that may ameliorate some of the worst impacts. There are few deniers of Noah's Flood, which apparently did occur (although not on a worldwide scale) but it is because people reported the devastation through either local folk lore or of course the account in the bible. Perhaps focusing on the effects and how this cycle of warming is similar to past cycles might help move the debate out of the control (at least from a political perspective, since it seems like I saw a recent poll suggesting that most everyday people accept global warming as real) of the deniers, and back into a more productive discussion of how we perhaps slow the process and in the meantime learn to live with the new climate regime. Kim Withers, Ph.D. Associate Research Scientist Center for Coastal Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi 6300 Ocean Dr., Unit 5866 Corpus Christi, Texas 78412 Office: 361-825-5907 FAX: 361-825-2770 [EMAIL PROTECTED] "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." George Orwell
