Climate change – Get out your mittens, not sunscreen

With any luck, maybe the pumping out of carbon dioxide emissions will protect us from global cooling. Believe it or not, the climate of the earth does change. Despite Al Gore’s attempts to sensationalize and put an end to the debate on global warming, we should, I think, continue to examine the evidence and look at all of the contributing factors. One of the things that the former VP doesn’t really discuss is that bright, fiery furnace in the sky. Don’t you think that the sun might have a bit of an impact on global temperatures? Recent studies of the sun show that we are probably in greater danger of a decrease in global temperatures than an increase due to solar activity, not carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition, the stark reality is that a decrease in temperatures is a much greater risk to humanity than warming. Take the medieval warm period, for example: the world saw increased temperatures between the years 800 and 1300. The results were good for the world, such as warmer temperatures, longer growing seasons, which reduces diseases and increases food production. The result of this was a flourish of human culture. Now tell me that isn’t a good thing. The increase in temperatures were due to solar activity, not human industry.

The sun operates on an 11-year cycle, more or less, but recently, astronomers have observed that the activity on the surface of the sun have been remarkably quiet (solar flares, sun spots, etc.). This could have a much bigger impact on our climate than emission of gasses into the atmosphere. I recommend this article. Food for thought, anyway.