Global Warming Quandary

Ok - so we all know global warming is a hot button in America and... well... globally.  I taught a messaged called, "Is God Green?" that you can view here.  One of the main concepts I hammered is that mankind is not the primary cause of global warming.  In fact, if you want to blame something, blame the sun... or the soil... or the seas.  You would be better to blame shifting wind patterns for much of the so-called melting ice caps.

I came across this article that sure puts a question on who/what is to blame for global warming.  Don't shoot the messenger.  Happy reading.  This article can be found at here - it is the Wednesday, Sept 3 newsletter.  Might we see a global cooling in the next 5-10 years?  What would the extreme environmentalists do?

Quiet Sun may spell global cooling

For the first time in nearly 100 years an entire month has gone by without the sighting of a single sunspot. That could turn out highly significant for Earth's temperature.  Why?

Because sunspots correlate with both solar energy emission and solar magnetism. (click here for detailed info)  Solar energy affects Earth temperature directly. Solar magnetism affects it indirectly by affecting how much cosmic radiation enters Earth's atmosphere, which affects low-level cloudiness. Decreasing solar magnetism leads to increasing cloudiness, which leads to decreasing surface temperatures. During the Maunder Minimum (very low sunspot activity about 1645 to 1715), temperatures fell so much the period has come to be called the Little Ice Age.

Thus, as the graph above indicates, solar influence on global climate dwarfs human influence through the emission of carbon dioxide. What the downturn in sunspots portends is global cooling.

This also helps explain why temperatures on Mars and other planets, (click here for an insane amount of info) which lack human influence, have changed in ways similar to changes on Earth.

Comments

[daphne]

In addition to sunspots affecting the earth's magnetism, the magnetic poles flip-flop every so often. We are in a period of flip-flopping now, meaning the earth's magnetic field is not quite as strong as even the last 100 years and therefore not as able to keep out solar radiation. This affects the earth's temperature as well.

[BarryOnline.com]

Thanks for the update Daphne - I didn't know about the magnetic poles. Hope you're doing well.