According to BBC Radio news this morning (based on an article in the current issue of "Science"), the ice in West Antarctica is becoming thicker "thus allaying fears of global warming".
The last time there was demonstrable global warming (at the end of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago) 10 million square kilometres of land (equivalent to South America and the US combined) were flooded and now lie under the sea. The odds are still in favour of global cooling rather than warming. Thus our descendents are more likely to experience a massive gain in land surface rather than loss. But, as a lot of land would be covered with glaciers, this scenario would be a great deal more serious economically than the one produced by global warming doomsters. As I suggested before, I humbly maintain that the jury is still out on this one and we need more evidence yet before panicky (and quite insufficient) measures are taken -- as promoted mainly by European Union bureaucrats who want to demonstrate to the world just how far-seeing they are. Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
