  A comparison of northern and southern hemispheric paleotemperature profiles
suggests that the Bolling-Allerod Interstadial, Younger Dryas stadial, and
subsequent Preboreal warming which occurred at the end of the last ice age were
characterized by temperatures that changed synchronously in various parts of
the world, implying that these climatic oscillations were produced by
significant changes in the Earth's energy balance. These globally coordinated
oscillations are not easily explained by ocean current mechanisms such as
bistable flipping of ocean deep-water production or regional temperature
changes involving the NW/SE migration of the North Atlantic polar front. They
also are not accounted for by Earth orbital changes in seasonality or by
increases in atmospheric CO-2 or CH-4. On the other hand, evidence of an
elevated cosmic ray flux and of a major interstellar dust incursion around
15,800 years B.P. suggest that a cosmic ray wind driven incursion of
interstellar dust and gas may have played a key role through its activation of
the Sun and alteration of light transmission through the interplanetary medium.
