My first question has to do with global warming. Apparently the sunspot activity has died down:
VANISHING SUNSPOTS PRELUDE TO GLOBAL COOLING?
So will a mini ice age chill our global warming factors? Or will our global warming factors warm up the mini ice age?
over the hump:
Dr. Kenneth Tapping is worried about the sun. Solar activity comes in regular cycles, but the latest one is refusing to start. Sunspots have all but vanished, and activity is suspiciously quiet. The last time this happened was 400 years ago -- and it signaled a solar event known as a "Maunder Minimum," along with the start of what we now call the "Little Ice Age."Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, says it may be happening again. Overseeing a giant radio telescope he calls a "stethoscope for the sun," Tapping says, if the pattern doesn't change quickly, the earth is in for some very chilly weather.
I don't know about anywhere else - apparently the gulf has some tremendous hot spots, but here in KC it has been really very cool for August. But I digress. My real question are these:
- How long is the cooling to last if the sunspot activity is correct in predicting cooling?
- How long will it take glaciers to reform if it starts cooling?
- A corollary to the 2nd question - how long will Haiti stay submerged?
- Since it is probable that we have passed peak oil, what will we use to warm ourselves if it does get colder? (It would appear that we have already denuded a lot of our wood fuel from the landscape.)
- If we completely flatten Virginia and West Virginia (and even disembowel the scenery) getting the coal out how long will the coal last us?
- Has anybody heard any repub actually talking about these issues? (I would guess not Sarah P. since she hates polar bears!)
- How can they tell what happened in the sun 400 years ago?
Thanks for your help in solving these mysteries of mine.