It’s a shame that discussion on global warming, climate change, and conservation have all become so politically charged. Because, frankly, I don’t know whether I’m supposed to trust this sort of news (via Watts Up With That):
The first new sunspot in weeks has emerged today. The spot that has emerged is small and on the equator, so it appears that it is a cycle 23 spot rather than one from the cycle 24 that is gave one spot on January 8th, signaling a start of cycle 24, but has given no cycle 24 type spots since.
Based on what we know about the sun, a cycle 24 spot would be reverse polarity to cycle 23 spots and high latitude. The longer cycle 24 continues to delay producing its spots heightens the concern that we may be in for a longer inactive period on the sun, such as a Dalton type minimum.
In case you’re wondering what a “Dalton type minimum” is, Wikipedia provides this bit of trivia:
The Dalton Minimum was a period of low solar activity, lasting from about 1790 to 1830. Like the Maunder Minimum and Sporer Minimum it coincided with a period of lower than average global temperatures.
There is even a blog dedicated to the prediction of an imminent Dalton-type minimum, entitled “Dalton Minimum Returns.
A recent post there links to a presentation by David Archibald which goes into a bit more detail about such predictions.
Personally, I’m not familiar enough with long-term climatology and the science of global warming to feel comfortable in knowing whether to believe or disbelieve such discussion.
True, I have previously expressed a willingness to believe in global warming, although recent warm years I’d attribute to the effects of other cycles and normal random variation.
However, the idea of cyclical variation of solar activity on the earth’s climate does fit in on my cycles-upon-cycles view of the world.
It would actually be amusingly ironic if human-induced climate change lead to the potential upcoming Dalton-like minimum being not quite as bad as it would otherwise be.
Bah. Now I have a headache from thinking about all these correlations.
Despite that headache, I still think that there are good reasons to pursue conservation and more sustainable technology, beyond the global warming predictions/hype.
