From: "Redmond Simonsen" I was surprised to see your "Global Warming" polemic in your newsletter. I had always thought of you as a skeptical sort who wouldn't readily buy into the "common wisdom" on such things. There is very little science in the public debate on AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming). You need to read more science and less Barbara Streisand. See: http://users.erols.com/dhoyt1/annex2.htm This is a brief but scientifically rigorous and skeptical look at AGW. If you want to get into hard data, the rest of this scientist's site gives you ample amounts of real information (as contrasted with the bogus computer models which the proponents of AGW use to make their case). BTW: do you know that you are living in the Interglacial "warm period" of the current 2 million year long Ice Age? These interglacials last about 10,000 to 12,000 years. Then the Ice comes again. The cycle is 90,000 years of ice/10,000 years of warmth. We are in roughly the 12,000th year of the current Interglacial. Anytime in the next year to the next 500 years, the glaciation will start again. Nothing Man can do can stop it or much alter it. All of Northern Europe and much of America will be under a mile of ice for around 50,000 years. Has little to do with greenhouse gases (mostly the Sun and the Solar System's path through space). It's gonna be hard to visit those Napoleonic battle sites, eh? Anyway, read the webpage and be a little more critical of the more hysterical predictions of AGW proponents. Man is a small creature and the Earth is great and enduring albeit prone to dramatic changes and catastrophic shifts. [Editor sez: Glad to hear from Redmond, my old friend from SPI days. I have been to the site recommended above. I recommend it anyway: if you agree with Redmond that the Greenhouse effect is bogus, then you will enjoy this site, as you will find no hint that there might be any truth to it. Among its dozens of links the site contains no mention of the IPCC report it ridicules. I recommend reading this too, of course. http://www.usgcrp.gov/ipcc/SRs/ (the IPCC US site) http://www.usgcrp.gov/ipcc/wglspm.pdf (print version of most recent report). From: Sakari Lindhén Ice Age vs Global Warming Don't get confused, they are two different and NOT mutually exclusive conditions. Ice age occurs due to radiation from the sun, or less of it, either due to the sun's internal conditions, or changes in the earth's orbit. Global warming is caused by beings on the planet (this includes the cows producing all that methane). How they interact with each other is open to debate. Global warming does not in any case necessarily mean warmer weather -- for Europe it will mean cooler, as melting icecaps interfere with the gulf stream. Global warming in fact, could even increase the likelihood of a new ice age, by producing reflective clouds that insulate the earth. In any case, America should clean up its act...and God help us if the Indians etc., decide they want all to have an American lifestyle (and why shouldn't they want to?). Saku, a worried European P.S. Have booked the cats a holiday for June in anticipation of Highway to the Kremlin! Back to OSG News May 2001 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Operational Studies Group. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com