[Atmob-discuss] The Sun also Sets

[John Blomquist]

Hi all;
    I found this message on the solar observers group and thought, although 
it's a little lengthy, that with all the discussion about global warming you 
might want to read it as well.  It's very thought provoking.

John.


> 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:
> <http://www.ibdeditorials.com/FeaturedCategories.aspx?
sid=1802>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.
>
>
> NASA / JPL Solar System Ambassador
>
> Owner,
> DayStar Filters LLC - www.DayStarFilters.com
> ICSTARS Astronomy - www.ICSTARS.com
> StarGarden Foundation - www.StarGardenFoundation.org