Scientists predict rare 'hibernation' of sunspots

[cory777]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – For years, scientists have been predicting the Sun would by around 2012 move into solar maximum, a period of intense flares and sunspot activity, but lately a curious calm has suggested quite the opposite.

According to three studies released in the United States on Tuesday, experts believe the familiar sunspot cycle may be shutting down and heading toward a pattern of inactivity unseen since the 17th century.

The signs include a missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles, said experts from the National Solar Observatory and Air Force Research Laboratory.

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Experts are now probing whether this period of inactivity could be a second Maunder Minimum, which was a 70-year period when hardly any sunspots were observed between 1645-1715, a period known as the "Little Ice Age."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110614/ts_afp/usspacesun

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Breaking Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[Demeter]

1. So, We'll Be Saved by Global Warming

It sure feels like an Ice Age coming in Michigan...I kept an eye out for glaciers all winter long, and believe me, it was a LOOONG winter.

[SkyDaddy7]

2. What sucks is...

If we do experience colder temps then most will believe the climate change deniers & the problems will get much worse. Climate Change does not mean we won't experience cold winters in the short run...More moisture in the air will cause wild erratic weather.

[greiner3]

3. An ice age has at least two parts;

A colder and longer winter and a cooler summer. Your observation that MI may have had a colder 2011 winter may be problematic. However, that does not underscore that fact that MI is an insignificant part of the US. The US is a very small part of the world. The world's temperature is actually still warming. The fact that a normally colder clime, say MI for instance, is getting colder in the winter was predicted in a paper by Carl Sagan 30 years ago. He argued that the poles would become much warmer, and by comparison areas such as MI, and that the closer you get to the equator you get may actually become cooler. This is seen to happen.

Also, a warmer world's temperature's atmosphere holds more moisture hence the record amounts of snow fall in the temperate zones. Another prediction was that the weather patterns would also change. We are seeing this in places such as FL, GA and in fact most of the US's Southeast. Nuts like GA's governor are publicly praying for more rainfall. If that goes like other studies of praying and it's effects then there will be less rainfall. I cannot express how funny that is to me.

But I digress. To be fair, Carl Sagan also thought that the problem of global Weather Change could lead to a cooling effect. This was also the conclusions of many other scientists at the time. But this was also in the 1950 and 1960s. As the weather satellites became more numerous and sophisticated the data showed that the effects of the greenhouse gases would in effect cause a warming of the planet. This was also shown in the satellites that visited Venus where there is a runaway greenhouse effect causing global temperatures that melt metal.

Human caused Climate Change is real. Nearly all scientists and data show this to be the case. In the beginning there are small effects but it is a negative feed back loop. There will be an ever increasing temperature rise and all that this brings about; crazy weather. The religious nuts are correct in predicting the end of the world. However, it will be our own willful act that brings it about. But on the other hand we have the power to stop our own destruction. Stop burning fossil fuels!

[FLPanhandle]

4. Not saved, we might delay the effects temporarily

Even worse, it'll reduce the urgency of reducing greenhouse gases, so when the sun returns to normal things will be even worse.

[cprise]

15. Please read the article. n/t

.

[robcon]

5. A "Little Ice Age" is much, much worse than Global Warming.

If this prediction is true, watch out for significantly lowered agricultural productivity = food shortages.

[blank space]

6. Your kidding right ?

A 1.5 degree change in global warming will mean the majority of global rice production will fail, while a two degree shift will mean global wheat production will fail.

The most recent report from the IEA states quite clearly we have utterly missed any goals posed by coppenhagen, while Sachs responded with an urgent need to shift our focus from dealing with carbon emissions to dealing with the global civilisation collapse - as carbon will take car of itself as our entire civilisation collapses.

I dont think you really have much of an understanding of what we are facing with global warming.

Quite simply - there will be no civil society by 2050 - absolutely ZERO CHANCE.

I find that to be considerably more worrying than what was seen during the last mini ice age.

I find it incredibly shocking how apathetic people are to the finality the human race is facing in global warming, it just shocks me completely the reaction to undeniable, total societal collapse.

Anyhow, yeah less sun spots.

[Rebubula]

7. Well...

...a snotty and pedantic post should bring everyone over to your elevated and superior mindset.


Good job.

[JAbuchan08]

11. I guess pointing out when someone is wrong is "snotty"

better to remain ignorant than to have the humility to accept when you're wrong I guess. I actually find your post to be the worst of the three. The first post was ignorant, the second post (according to you) "snotty", your post was snotty in defense of ignorance.

[harun]

16. A rise in CO2 increases crop production. However you may need to grow

in different places, which is nothing new.

[NickB79]

18. A rise in CO2, with the corresponding temperature and rainfall changes, decreases crop yields

CO2 only boosts some crops to give higher yields, and only then to a certain extent. Beyond that, the CO2 rise actually has a negative impact on their yields as the CO2 overwhelms their systems and they close their leaf stomata to prevent excess intake.

The killer is that the associated rise in temperature and the change in rainfall patterns drastically decreases yields. The solution, moving to a new location to farm is currently impossible on a global scale.

First, there are the logistical and economic problems of relocating millions of farmers, their equipment, and the support structures required to farm (grain mills, seed distribution networks, paved roads, railroads, the small towns that provide groceries, fuel and entertainment for the farmers and their families) and the fact that most farmers simply couldn't afford to buy a new farm when they won't be getting a good price for their old ones if the land is incapable of being farmed anymore.

Secondly, there isn't enough fertile farmland to move to. Where are the farmers of the US Midwest, or the farmers of Europe, supposed to move? The majority of the land in northern climates is inhospitable for farming. In the US, much of Canada is framed with the Rocky Mountains to the west, and the Canadian Shield granite plates to the east. Even if the climate warmed enough to grow crops there, the soil is thin and infertile. There is an extension of the Great Plains that is already farmed, so there wouldn't be much room for new farmers there. Beyond that, you hit conifer forests and tundra, which again have poor, rocky soil. The same goes for Europe and Asia.

Finally, we have no way to accurately predict how rainfall patterns will be shifting with enough certainty to tell a farmer: move here and all will be good. It may be that a new location will be stable for a decade or two, only to see another shift to drought or flooding as the climate continues to warm, at which point the farmers have to move again. You can't feed a population of 7+ billion with a nomadic farming community.

[harun]

19. Little use debating what might happen, because we will see what

is going to happen. Meaning no one in power is doing anything about it nor will they.

If temps are higher than normal where I am at, I will plant earlier in the season. I will also plant mid-season later and harvest later in to the year before frost sets in. If it makes things cooler or wetter I will adjust for that.

Point being we need to figure out how to survive it, not how to stop it. Because we really are not in control of our gov't. The Corporations are and stopping it would hurt their profits. Hence, it will not be stopped.

[NickB79]

20. Sadly, I have to agree with you on that

We won't even begin to take serious steps to slow climate change until it is far too late. Adaptation is indeed our best bet at survival; unfortunately it won't be enough to ensure that we all survive.

[Moonwalk]

17. It's not shocking. It's a predictable as, well, global warming weather....

Humans, an animal smart enough to know it's going to die, have always dealt with this knowledge by going into denial. Heaven exists because we refuse to accept the finality of death. Miracle cures get bought because we deny death. We deny. We won't even let the elderly who want death have it because we, as a species, can't accept that. People go to war because they deny that they will die. They go exploring, engage in extreme sports, etc., because they deny. It's a survival trait, actually. Otherwise our awareness would keep us from doing anything. Denial (for the most part) of what we know allowed our ancestors to leave home, take their spears to huge, dangerous animals and bring back meat, and kill off rivals--but, obviously, this trait only works if it's not race extinction we're talking about. However advanced technology, we haven't evolved past caveman. This has ever been the problem of modern man--the inability to eradicate instincts that worked for us in the wild, but are destructive to us at any higher level. Using up resources and destroying ourselves is what we have done and tend to do. Many civilizations have risen and fallen thus--the only difference this time is that it's going to be on a global scale.

[robcon]

22. Wow, you really don't know what you're talking about.

A "little Ice Age" will lead to mass starvation. "Missing goals from Copenhagen" is small potatoes (sorry for the pun) compared a to a Little Ice Age."

[NickB79]

23. BOTH will lead to mass starvation

Here's a good video to watch on what 6 degrees of warming would do to humanity and the planet:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/six-degrees-could-change-the-world-3188/Overview

6 degrees of warming is where we are heading at current rates of CO2 release, partially due to missing goals set by Kyoto and Copenhagen.

[greiner3]

9. Warming will also suck;

Because the plants around the world will suddenly be thrown into chaos. There will not be enough time for them to evolve into species that can withstand such a temperature increase. Also, while any intelligent person knows plants need CO2 in order to grow, studies have shown that there is a negative feedback to this. In other words, too much of a good thing...

Also, the increased human caused greenhouse gases introduced via burning fossil fuels cinsumes more and more of the atmosphere's available free oxygen. It will be tied up in the above mentioned CO2 as methane and other gases decompose and react with the sunlight. The oxygen cycle will shift and with it dire consequences for most life on Earth.

[slackmaster]

10. So we're in for a one-two punch

Global warming AND a mini Ice Age at the same time.

:argh:

[NickB79]

21. More like one and then the other immediately afterwards

When the solar minimum passes and solar activity returns to normal, global temperatures will shoot up faster than anything in recorded human history, most likely. All that CO2 will still be there (and probably a lot more, considering all the extra fossil fuels we'll burn to cope with cooler weather during winter months).

[alfredo]

25. The melting permafrost will release massive amounts of methane.

[slackmaster]

12. I think it's risky to make such a comparison. We know a lot about how bad the Little Ice Age was.

What will happen with global warming is not fully understood.

A sudden drop in global temperatures would without any doubt be devastating to agriculture.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. We have food shortages right now.

Across the planet.

I'd say we are in deep kim chi already, but that would imply a surplus of food.

[slackmaster]

8. This could be worse than Y2K

:argh:

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Anthropogenic sunspot suppression.

I kid, I kid.

[leftyohiolib]

24. some say the world will end in fire others say he world will end in ice

from what i have tasted of desire i hold with those who favour fire. but if i have to perish twice i think i know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice.
r. frost

[alfredo]

26. I'd rather assume room temperature while I sleep. Fire or ice is not as

Pleasant as dreamless, never ending sleep.