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Posted by Gunner on February 9, 2008, 2:28 am
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>The Sun Also Sets
>By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT
>
>Climate Change: Not every scientist is part of Al Gore's mythical
>"consensus." Scientists worried about a new ice age seek funding to better
>observe something bigger than your SUV - the sun.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Related Topics: Global Warming
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the
>balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data
>that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely
>tracked solar cycles.
>
>To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking
>additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun,
>which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and
>smokestacks on our planet combined.
>
>And they're worried about global cooling, not warming.
>
>Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's
>National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of
>an increase in sunspot activity.
>
>Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the
>sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal
>the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs
>every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
>
>Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots
>showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no
>11-year cycle.
>
>This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began
>around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715.
>Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop
>failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.
>
>Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle and
>warns that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate
>a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive
>snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.
>
>Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old radio telescope that he
>calls a "stethoscope for the sun." But he and his colleagues need better
>equipment.
>
>In Canada, where radio-telescopic monitoring of the sun has been conducted
>since the end of World War II, a new instrument, the next-generation solar
>flux monitor, could measure the sun's emissions more rapidly and accurately.
>
>As we have noted many times, perhaps the biggest impact on the Earth's
>climate over time has been the sun.
>
>For instance, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar Research in
>Germany report the sun has been burning more brightly over the last 60
>years, accounting for the 1 degree Celsius increase in Earth's temperature
>over the last 100 years.
>
>R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the
>Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada's Carleton University, says that
>"CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long,
>medium and even short time scales."
>
>Rather, he says, "I and the first-class scientists I work with are
>consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations
>of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the
>stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet."
>
>Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says: "Solar scientists predict that,
>by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle of the past
>two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth."
>
>"Solar activity has overpowered any effect that CO2 has had before, and it
>most likely will again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even a
>medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking at a lot more bad effects
>than 'global warming' would have had."
>
>In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo Abdusamatov made some waves - and not
>a few enemies in the global warming "community" - by predicting that the sun
>would reach a peak of activity about three years from now, to be accompanied
>by "dramatic changes" in temperatures.
>
>A Hoover Institution Study a few years back examined historical data and
>came to a similar conclusion.
>
>"The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss.
>Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear
>that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one
>in 100," according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.
>
>The study says that "try as we might, we simply could not find any
>relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in
>global temperatures."
>
>The study concludes that if you shut down all the world's power plants and
>factories, "there would not be much effect on temperatures."
>
>But if the sun shuts down, we've got a problem. It is the sun, not the
>Earth, that's hanging in the balance.
>
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>By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT
>
>Climate Change: Not every scientist is part of Al Gore's mythical
>"consensus." Scientists worried about a new ice age seek funding to better
>observe something bigger than your SUV - the sun.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Related Topics: Global Warming
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the
>balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data
>that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely
>tracked solar cycles.
>
>To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking
>additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun,
>which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and
>smokestacks on our planet combined.
>
>And they're worried about global cooling, not warming.
>
>Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's
>National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of
>an increase in sunspot activity.
>
>Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the
>sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal
>the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs
>every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
>
>Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots
>showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no
>11-year cycle.
>
>This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began
>around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715.
>Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop
>failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.
>
>Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle and
>warns that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate
>a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive
>snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.
>
>Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old radio telescope that he
>calls a "stethoscope for the sun." But he and his colleagues need better
>equipment.
>
>In Canada, where radio-telescopic monitoring of the sun has been conducted
>since the end of World War II, a new instrument, the next-generation solar
>flux monitor, could measure the sun's emissions more rapidly and accurately.
>
>As we have noted many times, perhaps the biggest impact on the Earth's
>climate over time has been the sun.
>
>For instance, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar Research in
>Germany report the sun has been burning more brightly over the last 60
>years, accounting for the 1 degree Celsius increase in Earth's temperature
>over the last 100 years.
>
>R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the
>Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada's Carleton University, says that
>"CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long,
>medium and even short time scales."
>
>Rather, he says, "I and the first-class scientists I work with are
>consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations
>of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the
>stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet."
>
>Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says: "Solar scientists predict that,
>by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle of the past
>two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth."
>
>"Solar activity has overpowered any effect that CO2 has had before, and it
>most likely will again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even a
>medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking at a lot more bad effects
>than 'global warming' would have had."
>
>In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo Abdusamatov made some waves - and not
>a few enemies in the global warming "community" - by predicting that the sun
>would reach a peak of activity about three years from now, to be accompanied
>by "dramatic changes" in temperatures.
>
>A Hoover Institution Study a few years back examined historical data and
>came to a similar conclusion.
>
>"The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss.
>Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear
>that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one
>in 100," according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.
>
>The study says that "try as we might, we simply could not find any
>relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in
>global temperatures."
>
>The study concludes that if you shut down all the world's power plants and
>factories, "there would not be much effect on temperatures."
>
>But if the sun shuts down, we've got a problem. It is the sun, not the
>Earth, that's hanging in the balance.
>