if there is one thing which defines climate, it is change . . .

and aptly similar is the chase the scientific community is giving to the evil factors behind it. When I was in school, it was called global warming. James Lovelock had just discovered CFC's in the atmosphere, though no real harmful effects were identified till the ozone layer depletion hit. Compressors, Aerosols and what seemed to me to be all american things seemed to be teeming with this lethal flouro concoction. We slowly eased away, either by finding alternatives like in the case of the aerosols or by doing what we do best, sticking our head into a television and ignoring!

The Gaia hypothesis was around back then, proposing that the biosphere is a living system that actually controls the systems on the planet as in say a human body. Maintaining the delicate balance of temperature, gases in the atmosphere, complex hydrological cycles like currents this system of which we are just a minuscule part was not to be understood as a lab experiment. The famous swallow flapping its wings to cause a hurricane a continent away is the most poetic example of the complexity that we are the most arrogant part of.

What I found funny was an article in the hindu which claimed that the influx of cosmic rays were the main cause of global warming as clouds are formed with help from the rays, and the lesser the rays the lesser the clouds so the more the penetrating solar radiation! But that's not the funniest by a long shot. The methane that the billions (?) of cows fart was my favorite. Then there was the whole confusion with the coming and going of ice ages. the nina brothers and assorted chaos . . i love the climate debacle . . its just so much fun.

. . have to sympathise with meteorologists though ;)