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A Chilling Tale of Global Warming
Reason, May, 2007 by Russell Seitz
Katherine Mangu-Ward's article on the U.N.-sponsored children's book ("A Chilling Tale of Global Warming," February) was a hoot. The climatology contingent from the Planetary Society must be rolling in the aisles even as its past demigod emeritus, Carl Sagan, is spinning in his grave. The planetoid Sedna, named for the goddess featured prominently in the book issuing warnings about global warming, is one of the coldest bodies in the Solar System. Several other Inuit deities have already had their names attached to Kuiper Belt ice balls cold enough to freeze liquid nitrogen.
In the race to be coldest, Sedna's rival is 2003 UB313, a.k.a. Xena, a charcoal ball whose even dimmer companion moon was naturally christened Gabrielle until the International Astronomical Union Committee on Small-Body Nomenclature and the Working Group on Planetary-System Nomendature spoiled the fun by formally renaming the dwarf planets Eris and Dysnomia.
The names may reflect the ferocious infighting within the International Astronomical Union, Eris being the Greek Goddess of Strife, Dysnomia the muse of anarchy.
Russell Seitz
Cambridge, MA
COPYRIGHT 2007 Reason Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group
