> ie "The sun is essentially not to blame" is what he's saying. > > FWIW, I am uncomfortable with the probability that his answer is > correct, notwithstanding the obvious bona-fides of those involved and > the fact that the question has at last been directly addressed > publicly without obfuscation. Much prior material treated available > data in such a way that their conclusions were suspect. > > But, I am pleased to hear that this is a well researched and > scientifically based conclusion and look forward to hearing more about > the basis for their conclusions. > > Russell There was an interesting article in this months' Scientific America which presented a hypothesis for most of the extinction events that ties into global warming. In a nutshell: - The oceans get warmer and can't hold as much oxygen. - The aerobic bacteria in the top part of the ocean start to die off. - This allows the anerobic sulfa-cycle bacteria that live near the bottom of the ocean to gain in population. - This cycle continues until the anerobic bacteria reach the surface and hydrogen-sulfides become a major part of our atmosphere. - This destroys the ozone layer, causing widespread problems among the remaining life that can stand the atmospheric changes Eventually things get worse before they get better. The author believes that the atmospheric CO2 level is the key, and this is going up by 2-3ppm per year. Assuming he's right and this doesn't change, we go over the edge in a couple hundred years or so. And I am not arguing why the atmospheric CO2 is going up; mankind, vulcanos, being teleported in by aliens from the 8th dimension, it doesn't really matter. If mankind gets its act together the level will at least go up more slowly, which will mean that even with major medical improvements, I won't be around to see it. :) And people wonder why I like nuclear power. -- D. Jay Newman ! Author of: jay@sprucegrove.com ! _Linux Robotics: Building Smarter Robots_ http://enerd.ws/robots/ ! "A backward poet writes inverse." -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist