Bazz,

"I have forgotten what the time between minor ice ages is but the whole thing has a name like Malenkov as it was a Russian that worked it out from memory."

The man's name was Milankovitch. He was Serbian. His theory is called the Milankovitch cycle and tries to match climate changes with the various eccentricities in the celestial movements. But its just a theory and has lots of problems since it doesn't marry well with known starts and stops of ice ages.

Nonetheless, the maths behind the theory were very clever (he did it during WW1) and, I gather, most astronomers think his theory is at least part of the answer. Marrying Svensmark's ideas with the Milankovitch cycles may, it seems, help to iron out some of the problems with the theory.

Robert,

I knew what you were referring to but still none the wiser as to why you think I'm joking. Seems like a simple enough question...what sealevel effect does the melting if the Arctic ice have?

I knew what you were referring to but still none the wiser as to why you think I'm joking. Seems like a simple enough question...what sealevel effect does the melting if the Arctic ice have?

If the polar ice caps melted, how much would the oceans rise?
At the other end of the world, the North Pole, the ice is not nearly as thick as at the South Pole. The ice floats on the Arctic Ocean. If it melted sea levels would not be affected.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question473.htm

I would give up arguing/debating if I were you and I am pleased to say I am not.

Just out of interest, here's some info on the Arctic Oscillation and the recent chill in the Northern Hemisphere:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=80804

Arctic sea ice melt causing sea level rises?

Archimedes showed a long time ago that melting ice in water cannot displace a greater volume therefore it cannot cause sea level rises.

Put a glass full of ice and water in a glass next to your bed and when you wake up in the morning the level will be exactly the same.

Try telling us that the glass overflowed. Where we you lot educated?

Well actually I was just trying to educate mhaze, who asked the question. It just goes to show how much intelligence a denialist really has.

Mhaze, thanks for the information. I thought it was accepted as the
cause of ice ages.
Must have been a major task before computers.

Some people make noises about the Antarctic melts.
No one has suggested that the earth temperature will rise 20 to 40 deg C.