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I’ve been reading 1 or 2 things about global warming recently. One book in particular mentions that the idea of the ‘Greenhouse effect’ having only been around for 20 years and “scientists” who believe in this theory are 90% sure of its accuracy. The author then goes on to talk about how scientists back in the 50′s were 90% sure that they could contain nuclear fusion in a safe manner….. try telling the residents of Chernobyl that.

Anyway, he points out that there’s a lot of talk in the world just now about the ice caps melting when in reality, yes the Arctic (north cap) has diminished since 1978, however its southern counterpart has grown by 8%. Furthermore, the penguins are turning up to their breeding ground 9 days later than they did 50 years ago, suggesting it is not warm enough for them to come out of hibernation.

So surely that goes against all this greenhouse effect talk? The theory being put forward is that it’s actually fluctuations in the suns activity that causing this. The sun itself goes on 11 year cycles of high/low activity and it was last in high season during the close of the 20th century. Apparently the sun also sometimes has a very prolonged period of hyper activity and then corrects this by cooling for a prolonged periods, this in turn causes an ice age.

Reading more into this, this is directly caused by cloud formation. Cloud formation is actually a direct result of cosmic rays. Whilst the sun is in a period of high activity it deflects most of these rays from Earth thus causing clearer skies and heating up the Earth beyond its normal temperature. So the prediction these guys are making is that a mini Ice Age will begin around 2012 and be in full swing by 2050-60. In other words, the sun is over active just now, causing the strange weather but will compensate by cooling itself and then the earth beginning around 2012.

It’s definitely food for thought, if the “scientists” who predicted the greenhouse effect are wrong then the question is, will Gordon Brown give me my tax back I’ve paid on flights? No I suspect.

At the end of the day however, this doesn’t change the fuel situation. Fuel and energy will just become more costly as the oil dries up and if there is a higher strain put on it by a global cooling period, it could be an economic disaster in the making.

Source: The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 9:01 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.