I was talking about the North Atlantic Oscillation by implication in my post. It took an extraordinary event, not likely to occur today, to knock it out in the past.
In any event it looks like the poles are nice and frigid for now.
Do you have a good site for arial photos of arctic ice over time. While I do tend to believe the Firestone scenario, I also feel we need to be very aware of the NAO danger in the absence of adequate arctic ice. We have had a long sunspot minimum, but if in fact there is an approximate 88 year sunspot cycle, along with the 11 and 22 year cycles, then the next sunspot maximum could reproduce the effects of the Great Depression droughts and heat. If there is more arctic ice now than a few years ago, I hope it is permanent, and not just an artifact of the minimum which could be temporary.