Eternal Mindshine of the Spotless Sun
We take the sun's light and heat for granted, particularly during the summer. But the sun's activity is cyclic. Today is the fifth day without a sunspot.The 11 year long solar cycle is marked by two extremes, solar minimum and solar maximum. Solar minimum is the period of least solar activity in the solar cycle of the sun. During this time sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes, and often does not occur for days at a time.Source
When spots begin to appear on the sun once again, scientists know that the sun is heading into a new season of extreme solar activity. At the cycle's peak, solar maximum, the sun is continually peppered with spots, solar flares erupt, and the sun hurls billion-ton clouds of electrified gas into space.
If you are interested in monitoring solar activity, check in with Solar Cycle 24.
Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from 22/2100Z to 23/2100Z: Solar activity was very low. The visible disk remains spotless.
Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to remain very low.
NASA scientists tell us that the solar conveyor, which helps determine solar activity, is expected to continue slowing--possibly triggering decades of sub-normal temperatures beginning around 2015 to 2020.
The Little Ice Age, from which we are still recovering, was thought to have been triggered by a solar minimum similar to the one we are expecting within the next decade or so. We need our Sunshine for warmth and food.
How ironic would it be for the sun to "fade" when oil supplies were beginning to plateau, and so many of the developed nations are firmly fixed in a politically correct prejudice against nuclear power? So many neotenates of pristine mind, who have never experienced hunger, cold, or deprivation. What in their experience could possibly have prepared them for the difficult decisions they will need to make?
Why, nothing at all. Which is why they will not be able to think the thing through, and make good decisions.
Labels: climate, climate cycles, global cooling, ice age, Sol
posted by al fin at 2:37 pm
3 Comments:
Does Al Gore have anything to say about this? Doesn't fit nicely into his preordained scenario for global calamity caused by my wife's SUV. Unfortunately the calamity of global cooling is far graver than the notion of long growing seasons in Canada and lower heating bills for you and me.
The two things that always bothered me about this CAGW debate are the inability for the hysterical people to explain away the Little Ice and the Medieval Warming Period and the idea that a warmer world is necessarily a bad thing for humanity???
Over the past century, the "global temperature" has risen perhaps 0.6 C. If the same thing happens in the next century, it would be a good thing.
As you say, global cooling is likely to kick in before the earth warms much more. If humans persist in wasting money chasing phantoms like anthropogenic greenhouse catastrophic warming, humans will not have the resources or expertise for dealing with the far more catastrophic cooling that is likely.
I totally agree with what you said before, we are chasing phantoms and we are wasting our time. The only one that is not wasting time is Al Gore, which will eventually reach his goal, of gathering votes, that is!
But, anyway, is good to see that more and more people do care about the theme of climate change, and is encourraging that their number is bigger and bigger.
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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