The BBC is now reporting that a scientific team led by Jonathan Bamber has found that melting ice in the Antarctic may lead to 3.3m rise in sea level, about half of what all doomsayers have been claiming all this time and scaring the hell out of us. Of course, this is still very bad apparently:

“the rise would still pose a serious threat to major coastal cities, such as New York…A sea level rise of just 1.5m would displace 17 million people in Bangladesh alone… “

Now, the question really is whether human activity has caused this melting. Or, are 100,000 year glacial cycles to blame?

Apparently, we are currently near a peak of a glacial cycle, during which glaciers are supposed to melt to some extent. Even within each glacial cycle, there is expected to be immense variation. Al Gore’s buddies don’t want us to talk about the Little Ice Age in Europe only a 150 years ago. We’ve been warming up since then.

And, apparently, we may begun cooling again. 2008 was the coldest year since 2000 and 2009, so far, doesn’t seem to be too much warmer.