keith, spike.. opening a rather big can of worms there. i know the day after tomorrow must have really impressed y'all, but there isn't a whole lot of empirical evidence to be had that we're going to have a 'mini ice-age' this winter. this stuff does belong in another forum, for one.. but i'll indulge at least a little.. nothing you've seen this year hasn't happened before. just because it's 2004 and we can more accurately monitor and detect weather events.. and record more storms.. doesn't mean that there's been an empirical change of any sort.
short of a large scale change in solar output, a global-scale asteroid event, or some kind of rampant volcanism.. i don't see that the minor addition to the world's CO2 level that people make is a really huge deal. the world's climate and global circulation can exist in a variety of different stability regimes.. just because the one we've had the last couple of centuries is what we're used to doesn't mean it's something that can't or won't ever change.
HF 0439z16november