[colorado tanker]

I like the terms glacial maximum and interglacial maximum.

The Younger Dryas was not a glacial maximum, although it was a nasty little event. There is an intriguing new theory that the melt many believe caused the event by shutting down the Gulf Stream was caused by an impact or atmospheric explosion from an asteroid or comet over Canada.

We're getting close to another interglacial maximum, which is why we've been in a warming trend. Duh.

Of course, within the larger cycle are many shorter ups and downs like the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age.

[TigersEye]

That is a little better. I find this all very interesting too. The climate will do what it wants and all six billion of us can't do a thing about it. Except adapt and deal with what we get.

What I have always found scary, on a philosophical level, is that the glacial maximum periods last so long. I can easily see how 60k or more years of glacial maximum could trash mankind's technological and cultural progress and put us back into hunter-gatherer mode.