Solar Science

Let me see if I have this straight. This means when planning my retirement 14 years from now, I should forget booking an Alaska cruise, because NASA just canceled the Northern Lights. Hello Bermuda! ;^)

John A:
This is great start to discussing the solar influence on the earths climate. I have been studying the possible return of the Dalton Minimum and its impact. Will you also discuss the solar modulation of cosmic rays and their influence on cloud formation? This seem more plausable than CO2 driven warming. Best, Russ

I’d like to do that next – but first I’ve got to buy the book from amazon.co.uk and read it.

Cycle 25 will help slow down global warming and buy us some time.

I know this is massively late in posting, but since this article is still up it might be interesting for those viewing to see how this situation has evolved. It is now October of 2009 and we’re STILL at minimum level activity. Cycle 24 is predicted to be weaker than normal, and now predictions are being made that cycle 25 might indeed be even weaker.

But I get tired of people saying “slow down global warming.” Look, I am all on top of cleaning up our act, but really. If the bloody sun goes cold, it doesn’t “slow down” global warming; it STOPS it. Global cooling has occurred every time the sun has gone into these periods of low activity followed by stronger cycles of greater activity that then heat the oceans, the surface, and in turn the atmosphere. To ignore the very affect of a weaker sun and claim that it is buying us time. Its like candy dangling in front of a child’s face. They don’t ignore it. Why do we?

If this pans out, and we go through a long cold period, then global warming isn’t just postponed. That kind of proves that CO2 isn’t as great of an insulator as we think. Attempting to say that temperatures would drop further without it is an unprovable hypothesis that has no business in real science.

Cleaning up the environment is the right thing to do. However, ignoring the signs pointing to cooling rather than warming is bloody fool hardy at best.