OCT 25, 1999 - Ice Ages is as good an answer as any, next time someone asks if you think astrology really amounts to anything. If, as Emerson phrased it, "astrology is astronomy brought to earth", then any astronomical link to the Ice Ages makes a pretty strong case for astrology. Visiting the Illinois State Museum's online Ice Ages exhibit puts you face to face with clear evidence for a correlation between a number of astronomical cycles and the periods of glaciation which have gripped our home planet down through the ages - and will do so again. But not any time soon, thank Heaven (literally!), because the winter solstice is now so near Earth's perihelion. (Which is a good part of the reason we're in a period of global warming, the tree-huggers' mantras about CFCs notwithstanding.) The solstice-perihelion connection is just one of several astronomical 'triggers' for glaciation. Nobody disputes the reality of Ice Ages, and the theory that astronomical factors help initiate such long-range climate changes is now broadly accepted in the scientific community. Who knows, maybe next they'll take up Emerson?
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