I have been wondering if there could be a connection between the Artic Polar Cap meltdown the fact that every few million years the earth does a flip flop, the south pole then suddenly occupies the same place in space that the north pole previosly did and visa versa. Some scientests suggest there might be some relationship between these two phenomena. As one might imagine this would totally disrupt the planet and we would be back at the starting place, primordial soup. The following links are very informative.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/developing.html
The Dynamic Earth: USGS
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth_poles_040407.html
Clues to Earths Magnetic Flip flop
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1111569,00.html
Artic Meltdown Increases
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1024-05.htm
Artic Cap Melting at a Worrying Rate: NASA