Archives for December 6, 2007

Looks as though I managed to spell Kangaroo correctly this time. Could this help Rudd ‘save the planet,’ even though atmospheric Methane levels are stable or falling?

Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say – SYDNEY (AFP)

Eco-friendly kangaroo farts could help global warming: scientists

Dr David Whitehouse is an astronomer and author of ‘The Sun: A Biography’ (John Wiley, 2004). He has written an article for The Independent, normally the home of hype and alarmism about the small, diminishing logarithmic effect of increased atmospheric CO2 on our ever changing climate, entitled ‘Ray of hope: Can the sun save us from global warming?’

Something is happening to our Sun. It has to do with sunspots, or rather the activity cycle their coming and going signifies. After a period of exceptionally high activity in the 20th century, our Sun has suddenly gone exceptionally quiet. Months have passed with no spots visible on its disc. We are at the end of one cycle of activity and astronomers are waiting for the sunspots to return and mark the start of the next, the so-called cycle 24. They have been waiting for a while now with no sign it’s on its way any time soon.

Read the rest of the article from The Independent, 5th December, here.

Also, see SolarCycle24.com

and The Great Frost of 1683

Seasons of the Sun

Modern Solar Minimum
(2000-?)

Modern Climate Optimum
(1890–2000) – the world is getting warmer. Concentrations of greenhouse gas increase. Solar activity increases.

Dalton Solar Minimum
(1790–1820) – global temperatures are lower than average.

Maunder Solar Minimum
(1645–1715) – coincident with the ‘Little Ice Age’.

Spörer Solar Minimum
(1420-1530) – discovered by the analysis of radioactive carbon in tree rings that correlate with solar activity – colder weather. Greenland settlements abandoned.

Wolf Solar Minimum
(1280–1340) – climate deterioration begins. Life gets harder in Greenland.

Medieval Solar Maximum
(1075–1240) – coincides with Medieval Warm Period. Vikings from Norway and Iceland found settlements in Greenland and North America.

Oort Solar Minimum
(1010-1050) – temperature on Earth is colder than average.

There seem to have been 18 sunspot minima periods in the last 8,000 years; studies indicate that the Sun currently spends up to a quarter of its time in these minima.