Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

Yes, well; funny thing about scientists... back in the 70"s they were
predicting a mini ice-age.

Actually, that is a myth. The (then weak) consensus in the scientific
press, rather than the popular media, was for warming.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php...lobal-cooling-
myth/

It depends what time-scale you are talking about.
I think the Milankovitch cycle theory,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles#100.2C000-year_problem,
is generally accepted,
and according to that we are near the end of an inter-glacial period
(in a 100,000 year cycle).
But that is talking about thousands of years;
global warming is talking about the next 100 years.


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland