I remember a time when my beliefs about climate change were jarred by learning something new. I was at a conference on climate at the university in Orono. The head of the climate center there, a well-respected climate scientist, presented information on the history of climate over the last several hundred thousand years. He showed a graph, indicating that the climate fluctuated over long periods, which led to the various ice ages and warming periods. The shocker was that he showed where we were on the graph and pointed out that we were at a point where we were overdue for another ice age. Thinking about what this could mean for the current climate debate made me wonder about my previous strong assertions re': the impact of climate change.