The news today is that the National Academy of Science claims that Northern Hemisphere temperatures are the highest they’ve been in 400 years. Burried in the news story is a little noticed fact that is not at all connected to the main story. The earth was in a “little ice age” from the years 1500-1850. So for 250 of the last 400 years we were in an ice age and the last 150 has mostly been a period of temperature recovery from that ice age. Why should anyone be shocked by the idea that temepratures are warmer today than at anytime during that last 400 years?