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There is a lot of discussion these days about global warming and some sort of vague assumption that all environmental problems can be labelled under this one heading. There is also a strange belief that if we can prove that man is not responsible for the causes of global warming, it will somehow go away. Even if Global Warming is the result of a natural cycle, like a long drawn out change in the global seasons, this is only one small piece of the jigsaw that makes up the dangers that face our planet. There seems to be more talk about global warming and ozone depletion in the western world for the simple reason that it has a big impact on western lifestyle, based as it is around the consumption of fossil fuel and chlorine products. Whilst the debate over the seriousness of these issues seems to be the high profile end of the argument, I would like to highlight some of the other issues that sometimes get overshadowed.

We will start with some fundamentals about the planet. It is assumed that the core of the planet is well coupled to the mantle. Under the constant bombardment of high levels of solar radiation in recent times, the electro-magnetic fields that surround the planet have been constantly bent out of shape. Whether this is the sole cause is not entirely known, but a worrying trend has been noted that the mantle of the earth has on occasion become dismantled from the core causing a slight slowing in the earth's rotation. In addition the earths magnetic pole has also been seen to wobble far more than in the past, sometimes by up to 1000 kilometres as noted in January 1992. Polar shifts and pole reversals have always been known to be a natural part of the way the earth functions and it may be that us denizens of the planet have no major impact on this happening. Then again maybe these events are triggered to various types of stress on a planet wide level, sometimes natural and may, just maybe this time around, helped on by mans activities.

Sharing some of the causes as listed above, Earthquakes may also be helped on their way by the cumulative testing of nuclear weapons, which have becoming increasingly prevalent in recent times, Tsunami, often caused by undersea land slides may also have its roots in the same area. Volcanic activity and hurricanes may also be partially helped on their way by this and the cumulative affect of these changes weather patterns over wide areas of land and sea. Scientists tell us that the earth's crustal activity is hotter and its

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