Re: Planet X: VIEWING, Restated

In Article <[email protected]> David Tholen wrote:
>> Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact
>> Research analyzed computer models of climate over
>> the past several thousand years. They concluded that
>> the change to today's desert climate in the Sahara was
>> triggered by changes in the Earth's orbit and the tilt
>> of Earth's axis.
>
> A slow change in the obliquity of the Earth has been
> known for a long time.  Current best fits show a decrease
> of 47 arcsec per century. ... In other words, no sudden
> and dramatic pole shift needs to be invoked.

Gradual?

  Lake Yiema
  Institute for Scientific Information Inc.
  Journal of Paleolimnology, 1999, Vol 22

     Climate became dry stepwise with an ABRUPT
     TRANSITION from one stage to another during the
     entire Holocene

  Cave Fossils expose New Mysteries of a Paradise Lost
  by Graeme Leech, Dec 4, 1999

      Fossil evidence found on cliffs near several Sydney beaches
      has revealed a tropical paradise existed in NSW as recently
      as 6000 years ago – a virtual blink of an eye in geological
      terms. The findings by University of New England scientists
      also suggest answers to a number of historical mysteries.
      Bob Haworth said the DRAMATIC CHANGE in sea levels
      and in climate

  A Forest from the Past
  ABC, Feb 23, 2000

      An amazing find of five acres of ancient [~10,000+ years old]
      forest, still standing and nearly perfectly preserved, down to
      the moss on the limbs of the trees. "If you look at the tree
      rings you can look at the microclimate (which determines
      growth) in this area right before it warmed up," Bornhorst
      says. "One of the really fascinating things is we don't see any
      indicators that the climate was going to warm up. "That has
      some practical significance. If nature didn't give any warning
      then, what about today? "ALL OF A SUDDEN it warmed up, ...

  Scientists Challenge Conventional Sea Level Theory
  ABC News, December 3, 1999

      Australian scientists say they have discovered evidence of
      RAPID CHANGE in world sea levels and of a dramatic fall
      in geologically recent times - directly challenging current
      conventional wisdom.