Friday, 02.08.08
With the advent of Solar Cycle 24, many scientists expect a massive spike in solar activity that will have the potential to disrupt satellites, cell phones, and air traffic in 2012.
But the real concern is Solar Cycle 25. Around 2022, a catastrophic drop in sun activity—the lowest in centuries, according to NASA—may cause temperatures on earth to plunge, inaugurating an extended period of cold. In other words, a new ice age.
What seems to have escaped many reporters’ grasps—at Popular Mechanics, most recently—is that this dire scenario doesn’t square with the facts. The only evidence its proponents present is the seeming correlation between the “Little Ice Age” of the 17th and 18th centuries and a concurrent period of solar slump. But as everyone would do well to remember, climate is far more complicated than that.
As one of the most chaotic and multi-variable systems humans study, it is easy to see why debates over climate change often degenerate into battles over orthodoxy and political wrangling to fend off any one of many dire eschatologies.
Man versus the SunMichael Goldfarb accuses climate change activists of denying the power of "the big ball of fire in the sky." |
Solar LunacyYury Zaitsev is convinced that solar activity will give rise to massive social turmoil, intellectual ferment, and madness. |
Climate ContrarianWhile dozens of governments gear up to take action against global warming, R. Timothy Patterson wants action against global cooling. |
