"I read a report about 20 years ago saying that one of the most serious consequences of the northern ice sheets melting is that the earths wobble is kept in line by them somehow. When they melt, they may cause the earth's wobble to get out of balance and to rebalance itself with a different pole. This has happened before in earth history, although i am not sure if we know why.

"The consequences of that are obviously quite serious. I wonder if any in the collective have any scientific pointers for or against this idea?"

David Fuller's view Thanks for an interesting email and I recall reading something similar, also a long time ago.

Aside from that comment I am not going to touch this subject with even the proverbial barge pole. However, it may be a good sign that we are moving on from recent bearish preoccupations with Europe, China and who knows, perhaps even the fiscal cliff.