[Platt to Dan] How come the world was hotter during the Middle Ages? [SA] Where did you source this from? I've been hearing that the hottest years on record have been within the last 10-15 years. I'm open to the actual facts, so, if you have a more accurate source I'd like to see for myself, thanks.
[Arlo] Some geological placement. The "normal" climate of the earth is what we had for the millions and millions of years the dinosaurs enjoyed. Every once and while the north and south magnetic poles line up over land (rather than sea) allowing for the formation of polar caps. This cools the earth, which is why they call it an Ice Age. During any given Ice Age, cycles of glaciation occur, reaching like fingers towards the equator, then retreating, then stretching, then retreating. We, the Glorious and Divine Human Race, inhabit the world in the midst of an Ice Age, in a period between glaciation cycles. Eventually will come the glaciers again... or perhaps before the next glaciation round the magnetic poles will drift off land and over sea, causing the polar caps to melt and the earth to be reborn into its normalcy, for another many million of years of Dinotopia. I, for one, am ready for "mankind" to be kicked around a bit. Its really the only way all this smug "superiority" nonsense will go away. Mind you, come what may, these natural cycles will occur. Personally I find the debate about whether or not we can speed up (or slow down) the inevitable off-target. Were we concerned about the Quality of our air, water and land NOW, then whatever maximization we could get we'd get naturally. There was a word I recall that was popular in the Seventies. "Conservationalist". Since the right-wing propaganda attack on anything "environmental" has continued unabated for twenty-years, I find myself returning to this word. It reminds me, in many ways of the Miner/Gardener metaphor, which I think overlays much of the Victorian/Indian metaphor, not to mention "an enemy of the world and not a part of it." moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
