Sun Stays Sluggish as Weathermen Fight for Anti-Ice Age Funding

Well, here's something that is totally opposite of what we have been hearing!

Alull in solar activity of our Sun has scientists worried we may be heading for another ice age.

Sun Stays Sluggish as Weathermen Fight for Anti-Ice Age Funding

Every day, scientists hoping to see an increase in solar activity train their instruments at the sun as it crosses the sky. This is no idle academic pursuit: A lull in solar action could potentially drive the planet’s temperature down, or even prompt a mini Ice Age.

For millennia, thermonuclear forces inside the star have followed a regular rhythm, causing its magnetic field to peak and ebb, on average, every 11 years. Space weathermen are watching for telltale increases in sunspots, which would signal the start of a new cycle, predicted to have started last March and expected to peak in 2012.

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Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old radio telescope that he calls a “stethoscope for the sun.” Recent magnetic field readings are as low as he’s ever seen, he says, and he’s worked with the instrument for more than 25 years. If the sun remains this quiet for another a year or two, it may indicate the star has entered a downturn that, if history is any precedent, could trigger a planetary cold spell that could bring massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.

The last such solar funk corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715.

So, I guess now we will have to worry about Global Warming in the short run, and the coming of an ice age in the longer run?

Let's just hope the Sun starts it's "new" cycle!

greenpagan.com
globalwarming.org
17th Century Solar Oddity Believed Linked To Global Cooling Is Rare Among NearbyStars
SCIENTISTS PREDICT SOLAR DOWNTURN, GLOBAL COOLING
NASA: Solar cycle may cause “dangerous” global cooling in a few years time
Take The Right Climate Change Action And Prepare For Global Cooling!
Canadian Professor: Prepare for Global Cooling

Decided to add a bunch of sources before I got called out on the original article!

So, which do YOU think would/will be worse?
Global Warming or Global Cooling?

Personally, I think Global Cooling would be the worst!

Here is another article on the new threat of Global Cooling that I found on Digg.

The Sun Also Sets

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.

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.

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.

I sure hope this isn't the begining of one of these Maunder Minimum's, it would be worse than the global warming ever would be!

Ahh, here's a little tid-bit that says that our "Global Warming" is actually being caused by the Sun.

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.

And these scientists are predicting that the Sun will be starting its weakest cycle in causing the Earth's Global Cooling in the year 2020.

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."

All I can really say is that I hope this doesn't happen!

But these are the cycles that the Sun goes thru, and the Earth. There's not much we can really do but observe what is going on with the Sun, and observe the affects it has on our planet.

[edit on 8/2/08 by Keyhole]

There was a recent thread that focused on the current solar cycle predictions for 24 and 25. They are actually similar to the peaks found around the first in the 1900s.

If we apply the reduction in temps found during that period and also predicted (0.2'C), it might take us back to about 1990s temps. Time to get the woolies out I suppose...

Some of those links are just denialist dreck, all I have to see is the 1998 canard and I know to ignore the rest, especially when it say 'teh global warming facts'

But to answer the question - which is worst? Both could be. It would depend on how extreme and how fast.

[edit on 8-2-2008 by melatonin]

Obviously its more complicated than just the sun. But this global warming stuff is turning into a right good laugh at those scientists that came out with it. The ipcc, could do alot of damage to science if they are wrong, and it will be a good laugh.

By the way, the only high profile public figure to say global warming is not man made, was the Pope. Just thought you people may want to know that, lol.

Found out that International Falls, Minnesota, on Moday, February 11th, set a new record low that hasn't been broken since 1967.

Nation's 'Icebox' Hits Record 40 Below Zero

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) -- The temperature in International Falls, Minnesota, fell to a record 40 below zero Monday, just a few days after the northern Minnesota town won a federal trademark making it officially the "Icebox of the Nation."

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The previous record low in International Falls was 37 below, set in 1967, said meteorologist Mike Stewart at the weather service in Duluth.

Another town came close to their record low, missing it by 1 degree, which was set back in 1888!

The temperature also fell to 40 below in Embarrass, 80 miles southeast of International Falls. That's just one degree above the all-time record in Minneapolis, 250 miles to the south, that was set in January 1888, the weather service said.

Breaking low temperatures that are OVER 40 years old, and approaching a record, by 1 degree that was set 120 years ago in 1888? ''

They MAY just be on to something saying that we may be heading for a mini ice age!

[edit on 11/2/08 by Keyhole]