Global warming; a subject that's been in the news a lot recently due to Hurricane Katrina. No, I'm not convinced; we're always seeing reports of extreme weather events on TV...the hottest for 500 years, the wettest, the driest, the worst season for hurricanes, the ice caps are melting, the Gulf Stream might dissipate etc. etc. etc.
What caused the extreme weather hundreds or thousands of years ago? Well, certainly not the activities of mankind - climatic extremes are a part of the natural cycle of the Earth's progression through space.
Variation in our orbit around the sun, the fluctuating energy output of the sun itself, the changing tilt of the Earth, a sudden flip of the magnetic flux and god know's what else all contribute to a growing list of potential causes and explanations.
Global warming or climate change, whatever you want to call it, will continue to happen and there's nothing we can do about it. We kid ourselves if we believe that human civilisation is the cause of this visitation: we're far too insignificant as a species for that.
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Of course, when I was at school, everyone worried about the imminence of another Ice Age.