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I was watching a program recently (I can't recall where, sorry) that explained a different theory of global warming. Yes, global warming does exist - it didn't try to argue against it. Yes, the ice caps will melt.
However. Our current climate depends largely on ocean currents to maintain the temperature. Warm water travels towards the ice caps, gets cold, sinks to the bottom, then returns, causing pressure changes that ultimately help to keep the world a fairly constant temperature. Once those ice caps melt, however, this theory speculates that those ocean currents will slow or stop entirely, and the result will be that the world ends up cooling significantly, likely driving us into another ice age. Apparently, a fairy large body of scientists is leaning towards this probable outcome.
I wish I could explain it better than I've done here, but I don't really remember specifics, just the basic idea.
But my point is - every area of climate science has a different perspective on things. The permafrost guys obviously have a very different view than the ocean current guys. Both of them have lots of evidence in their favor, but they're only looking at one piece of the picture. I don't propose that I know the answer; rather, I think it will be difficult to impossible to know for certain what will happen, simply because there are far too many factors to examine, and everybody has their own ideas.
Remember the guys that told us having too many cows would dangerously increase the methane in the ozone and thus increase global warming? Yeah, they're still around too. Along with ten million other theories. Who could possibly see the whole picture?
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