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My understanding from a fairly large number of books is that civilization as we know it has been the beneficiary of a much longer interglacial period than the geological norm.

I agree with Don that the history of Greenland is instructive in this regard, but I think he is reading that history the wrong way. Without human contributions to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the climate regime of the Little Ice Age might well be continuing today.

In other words, I part company from Don at the point where he writes, "Blaming greenhouse gases may be true to a limited extent...." I think that turns his argument in the wrong direction and suggests that we humans should not look for ways to mitigate the changes we have caused.

I say "changes" rather than "damage" because, from the perspective of the Earth, it doesn't matter much whether human settlements in coastal regions are flooded.

In any case, many of the above noted books make strong cases that the true climate "aberration" is what we are now experiencing. It probably began in the mid-19th century and has been relatively small, but we seem to be on the verge of much more significant changes in climate, which may play out in ways that, from the human perspective, are certainly dramatic.

The changes may indeed include "The Reawakening of Greenland." In fact, more of the island may become greener and more hospitable than at any time in human history. The flip side of a much more habitable Greenland is likely to be an inundation of low-lying lands. The scariest scenario is the flooding of Bangladesh, which could send tens of millions of refugees into India and Pakistan. Those two nations are long-time enemies and both have nuclear weapons.

In the context of this post, I particularly recommend The Little Ice Age: How Climate Changed History, 1300-1850 by Brian Fagan (Basic Books, 2001).

Fred Bortz -- Science and technology books for young readers (www.fredbortz.com) and Science book reviews (www.scienceshelf.com)