Your Antarctic update brought a smile to my face. Glad that the web site played a part in connecting you with the Antarcticans. That goes again to show why it is good for most of our class site to be open instead of password protected.

I was wondering what you thought of the different but not necessarily conflicting recent data from the enormity of Antarctica? As I understand it, data show that it has been getting colder in East Antarctica but warmer in the West. The former apparently has to do with the Ozone layer and the latter with actual Global Warming. I don’t think I have ever seen a subject where there is sharper scientific disagreement than on the causes of climate change and what homo sapiens are doing or not doing to change the planet. My read is that increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have to be bad for the planet and the oceans but that solar sunspot activity, or lack thereof, may even be a bigger influence on actual climate. The ice build up in recent months in the Polar area has apparently reversed the loss of the last 30 years.

ac