This item about a warming climate on Mars coupled with the large amount of evidence supporting the fact of global warming on Earth leads me to consider some new possibilities.
One is that humanity may have a race memory of periodic near-extinction through alternating, catastrophic (for humans) ice-ages and burn-ages on a 10-20 thousand year cycle.
I'm thinking here of a number of different elements - the near universal worship of the Sun as a god at some time or another, plus legends of "World Ages" destroyed by either fire or ice, coupled with the frequent stories of post-apocalyptic arrivals of "Sons of the Sun" who trot about the planet dispensing knowledge of agriculture, astronomy and writing (Kon Tiki Viracocha, Osiris, Quetzalcoatl and so on).
The 11-year sunspot cycle is well known, and I've found a couple of sites discussing cycles of the range 100-300 years but nothing longer - so any pointers welcomed.
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simon
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