Lorne Gunter: Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof - Full Comment apparently global temperatures are starting to go down now possibly due to the lackluster solar winds and negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation. lol, should we dust off our Ice Age warnings of the 70s again. On the same day (Sept. 5) that areas of southern Brazil were recording one of their latest winter snowfalls ever and entering what turned out to be their coldest September in a century, Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart explained that extreme cold or snowfall events in his country have always been tied to "a negative PDO" or Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Positive PDOs -- El Ninos -- produce above-average temperatures in South America while negative ones -- La Ninas -- produce below average ones. Dr. Hackbart also pointed out that periods of solar inactivity known as "solar minimums" magnify cold spells on his continent. So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.
Is Hackbart the MIT prof? I heard about the MIT prof that attributed the global cooling to solar sunspot activity...way over my head but it sounded viable.
Before we junk alternative fuel sources completely, let's remember that we're talking about results taken from just this year. There needs to be a longer period of record taking to make any firm conclusions.
well, we may be in a period of lesser solar energy, but the cooling process is being offset by rising co2 levels created by man, thus the record ice cap melts of the last couple years. Just think, after years of effort, we finally curtail our atmospheric polutants only to crash into an ice age. We, as Americans, would be better off ten times out of ten to have global warming instead of an ice age. Don't forget, just 10 thousand years ago New York city was under more than a mile of ice.
There's some debate as to how much man made CO2 is man's fault. Some feel it's as low as 1%. There are so many sources of CO2 that arent man made But anyway, you're right an ice age would be much worse. I suspect an ice age would kill far more people than a global warming
Man made CO2 is 99%+ responsible for CO2 that is in excess of the planet's ability to sink. Here is a good diagram of the carbon cycle
BBC has a great three part series examining the pros and cons of the global warming question . Search in your favorite download site for BBC.Earth.The.Climate.Wars. Suprisingly in the 70s and 80s scientists were worried about global cooling predicting a new Ice age but that proved to be wrong. Now there is evidence for global warming but how do we know that this fear is any more credible than the global cooling scare. The series is very balanced in its presentation.There is no hidden agenda
