ETA: S&F for a well put together thread edit on 9-2-2013 by
thesmokingman because: (no reason given) Contrary to the
conventional wisdom of the day, the real danger facing humanity
is not global warming, but more likely the coming of a new Ice
Age.What we live in now is known as an interglacial, a
relatively brief period between long ice ages. Unfortunately for
us, most interglacial periods last only about ten thousand
years, and that is how long it has been since the last Ice Age
ended.How much longer do we have before the ice begins to spread
across the Earth's surface? Less than a hundred years or several
hundred? We simply don't know Even if all the temperature
increase over the last century is attributable to human
activities, the rise has been relatively modest one of a little
over one degree Fahrenheit — an increase well within natural
variations over the last few thousand years. While an enduring
temperature rise of the same size over the next century would
cause humanity to make some changes, it woul