Massive sunspot - Image from NASA
We have spent a trillion dollars on climate change policies, diverted acres of food crops to bio-fuels, futile attempts to reduce CO2 emissions, while we stand on the brink of catastrophic cooling as the sun enters an extreme minimum of activity.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada (PRWEB) February 26, 2013
Last week NASA released images of a massive, growing sunspot that is six times the size of earth. The Smithsonian Magazine reported on possible damaging impacts of a solar storm if directed at our planet. However, Friends of Science say this may foreshadow a problem North America is unprepared for – global cooling. Many solar researchers are convinced that the sun is entering into a long term period of very low activity.
“Our position is that the sun is the main driver of climate change. Scientists have identified that the sun has 11 year cycles of sunspot activity. Now the sun is near the peak of cycle 24. Yet this cycle is about half the intensity of the previous one,” says Ken Gregory, director of Friends of Science. “The current cycle is the weakest since the one that peaked in 1906 at the end of the Little Ice Age.”
A period of extreme cold known as the Little Ice Age is well-documented in Brian Fagan’s book by the same name. This occurred from about 1350 to 1850 AD. At that time the Thames River in England froze, crops failed across Europe, summers were wet and winters extremely cold. Volcanic activity made conditions worse, with the Mount Tambora explosion of 1816 leading to a “year without summer.”
“The current solar activity is similar to that at the start of the Little Ice Age of sustained low solar activity and frigid global temperatures,” says Gregory. “It is the changing solar magnetic flux that affects climate, not the total solar energy which is virtually constant.”
“Canada and the US mid-west are the bread basket of the world,” says Len Maier, president of Friends of Science and a farmer himself. “Billions of dollars are being spent on climate change in the belief that the world will be warming. Our data shows a cooling trend for the past ten years. The cooling has begun due to solar cycles and galactic influences.”
The temperature index from the UK Met Office shows there has been no global warming for 15 years. From 2002 to December 2012, the best fit linear temperature trend has declined by 0.1 °C when climate models predicted a temperature rise of 0.2 °C.
Historically, the consequences of global cooling include extreme weather cycles, floods, freezing temperatures – and worst of all – crop failures.
“A one or two degree drop in temperature would significantly reduce agricultural crop yields in Canada,” says Len Maier. “We believe that current government ‘climate change’ policies to subsidize biofuel production are disastrous. These divert crops from food production to making fuel for vehicles. Food prices are up, due to a reduction in food stocks and changes in food security policies.” continues Maier.
Biofuel policies alone have devastated the poor. A study by Dr. Indur Goklany (2011) concluded that biofuel policies caused 192,000 excess deaths from malnutrition and poverty in the developing world in 2010.
Last month Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, England echoed these concerns: “It’s snowing and it feels like the start of a mini-ice age.”
“In President Obama’s inaugural address, he referred to the planet being commanded to our care by God,” said Maier. “The Bible story of Joseph, who managed seven years of plenty before seven years of famine for Pharaoh are a lesson for today. Cyclical climate change is part of the earliest recorded history of humankind. Even this Biblical parable closely parallels the 11 year cycle of the sun.”
Maier points out: “We have spent a trillion dollars on climate change policies, diverted acres of food crops to biofuels, and made futile attempts to reduce CO2 emissions, while we stand on the brink of catastrophic cooling as the sun enters an extreme minimum of activity. Our position is that the sun is the main driver of climate change. Not CO2. These wasteful carbon reduction policies must be abandoned and food security dealt with instead.”
About Friends of Science
Friends of Science have spent a decade reviewing a broad spectrum of literature on climate change and have concluded the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2). The core group of the Friends of Science is made up of retired earth and atmospheric scientists.
Contact:
Friends of Science
P.O.Box 23167, Connaught P.O.
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2S 3B1
Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597
friendsofscience.org
E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience(dot)org
