THE NEXT ICE AGE - NOW!

Giegengack takes issue with the Gorian doctrine that human carbon emissions are responsible for an increase in global temperature. At the risk of gross simplification, Giegangack believes rather that the earth's constantly fluctuating temperature is driving carbon levels in the atmosphere.

So what's next for Gore? …… To make a presidential bid would be to confirm many of the criticisms of the Nobel Prize. "The Peace Prize is especially political," said Giegengack, who noted that it has been awarded to such peace-loving luminaries as Yasser Arafat.

Giegengack has described Al Gore's documentary as "a political statement timed to present him as a presidential candidate in 2008." And added, "The glossy production is replete with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, and appeals to public fear as shamelessly as any other political statement that hopes to unite the public behind a particular ideology."

The Earth has been warming, says Giegengack, for about 20,000 years. We've only been collecting data on that trend for about 200 years. "For most of Earth history," he says, "the globe has been warmer than it has been for the last 200 years. It has only rarely been cooler." Those cooler periods have meant things like two miles of ice piled over much of what is now North America. Nothing to be nostalgic for.

"Sea level is rising," Giegengack agrees. But, he explains, it's been rising ever since warming set in 18,000 years ago. The rate of rise has been pretty slow — only about 400 feet so far. And recently — meaning in the thousands of years — the rate has slowed even more. The Earth's global ocean level is only going up 1.8 millimeters per year. That's less than the thickness of one nickel. For the catastrophe of flooded cities and millions of refugees that Gore envisions, sea levels would have to rise about 20 feet.

"At the present rate of sea-level rise," Gieg says, "it's going to take 3,500 years to get up there.