Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age

[soulxtc]

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.


The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."


China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.


There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses.

In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.


And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.


The ice is back.


Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.
OK, so one winter does not a climate make. It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we have had one of our most brutal winters in decades.


But if environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks early, then it is at least fair game to use this winter's weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are being a tad premature.


And it's not just anecdotal evidence that is piling up against the climate-change dogma.


According to Robert Toggweiler of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University and Joellen Russell, assistant professor of biogeochemical dynamics at the University of Arizona -- two prominent climate modellers -- the computer models that show polar ice-melt cooling the oceans, stopping the circulation of warm equatorial water to northern latitudes and triggering another Ice Age (a la the movie The Day After Tomorrow) are all wrong.


"We missed what was right in front of our eyes," says Prof. Russell. It's not ice melt but rather wind circulation that drives ocean currents northward from the tropics. Climate models until now have not properly accounted for the wind's effects on ocean circulation, so researchers have compensated by over-emphasizing the role of manmade warming on polar ice melt.


But when Profs. Toggweiler and Russell rejigged their model to include the 40-year cycle of winds away from the equator (then back towards it again), the role of ocean currents bringing warm southern waters to the north was obvious in the current Arctic warming.


Last month, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, shrugged off manmade climate change as "a drop in the bucket." Showing that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin advised people to "stock up on fur coats."


He is not alone. Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.
The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850. Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased.


It's way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it's way too early for the hysteria of the global warmers, too.


http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289

[N Fiddledog]

Here's a fun little companion piece to that, I think...

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200802/COM20080218a.html

Calm Sun, Cold Earth

By Alan Caruba
CNSNews.com Commentary from the National Anxiety Center
February 18, 2008

I can understand why people believe that global warming is real and that all the things Greens say are true. One cannot read a newspaper or magazine, turn on the television or radio, without getting the Green message.

Since switching their message in the 1970s that an Ice Age was coming to the complete fiction of a massive, dramatic global warming due to greenhouse gases, the Greens have been able to influence policy at the international and national level. They have been utterly relentless, a modern version of the Mongols on horseback who swept out of the East to conquer everything before them until they reached the gates of Europe. These days the Greens have long since conquered Europe.

One thing alone stands against the Greens. The science does not support them. Their sense of moral superiority, their contempt for all things modern, their resistance to all forms of energy except the weakest -- wind and solar, and at the very heart of the Greens' message is a contempt and hatred for the human race.

Humans have come to dominate life on Earth because we know how to adapt to the planet. We know how to use its minerals, the riches of its plant life, the domestication of its animals, and its reserves of energy in the form of coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear fission, to fuel the creation of great cities, farms and ranches, and everything that passes for modern civilization.

Long ago humans conquered the continents of the Earth and its great oceans to spread everywhere. Humans now fly between continents in hours. Everywhere on the face of the Earth humans now communicate with one another via the Internet.

For billions of years the Earth existed without humans and it will do so again when we cease to inhabit it. As a species, we are newcomers, but like every other species that lived on planet Earth -- 95% of which are extinct -- we are subject to forces far greater than anything we possess.

To suggest that humans actually cause climate change is such idiocy that the Earth itself reminds us daily of our vulnerabilities. The news is full of tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and wildfires.

On February 7, Investors Business Daily had an editorial titled "The Sun Also Sets" in which it cited the views of Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council. In essence, Tapping wants people to know that solar activity such as sunspots, i.e., magnetic storms, "has been disturbingly quiet."

It's useful to know that global temperatures and events closely reflect solar cycles.

The lack of activity "could signal the beginning of what is known as the Maunder Minimum." While solar cycles tend to last about 11 years, the lack of normal or increased activity can trigger the Maunder Minimum, an event that occurs every few centuries, can last as long as a century, and causes a colder earth.

The most recent such event was the mini-Ice Age that climatologists date from around 1300 to 1850. In the midst of this there was a distinct solar hibernation from around 1650 to 1715.

"Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle and if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere."

If these events continue and become a cycle of cooling, it represents a major threat to the Earth's population because it means that food crops will fail and, with them, the means to feed livestock, and the rest of us.

If you have been paying attention to global weather reports, you know that China has had the heaviest snowfall in at least three decades. David Deming, a geophysicist, in a December 19, 2007 article in The Washington Times, noted that, "South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918." This occurred across the entire Southern Hemisphere. "Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever."

It must be said that one big blizzard does not an Ice Age make, but a whole series of events that suggest a cooling cycle may well be the warning that is being ignored in the midst of the vast global warming hoax.

Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute. He recently published a commentary asserting that a global cold spell could replace global warming. Note that the Earth has been warming -- about one degree Fahrenheit -- since the last mini-Ice Age ended around 1850. "The real reasons for climate change are uneven solar radiation", said Dr. Sorokhtin, while citing others that include the Earth's axis gyration and instability of oceanic currents.

"Astrophysics knows two solar activity cycles, of 11 and 200 years. Both are caused by changes in the radius and area of the irradiating solar surface." Yes, the Sun itself goes through periods of change. Dr. Sorokhtin believes that "Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer."

There is a reason scientists refer to our current era as an "interglacial period", i.e., a time between Ice Ages.

Up to now, the mainstream media has ignored the cold reality of the Earth's known cooling cycles. They have been in complete thrall to the howling of Al Gore with his endless lies about an imminent warming. Given the accolade of a Nobel Prize and even a Hollywood Oscar, why should people unschooled in science believe otherwise?

The United Nations International Panel on Climate Change whose reports have been based, not on hard science such as observations of solar activity, but on flawed, often deliberately false computer models, has been the driving factor behind the global warming hoax. What better way to assert political and economic control over the Earth than to create a global crisis? To their credit, many participants in the IPCC have protested these reports.

Large numbers of scientists have sold their soul to the global warming lies in order to receive millions in research grants, but increasingly other scientists have been coming forth to tell the truth. On March 2-4, several hundred will convene in New York for the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change to offer papers and serve on panels disputing and debunking the global warming hoax.

Beyond the climatic threat of a cooling planet is the one posed by U.S. politicians and their counterparts in Europe who are seeking to impose all manner of regulation and limits on energy use based on the false assertion that greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming.

They want to mandate a "cap-and-trade" scheme that will make some people and industries wealthy selling credits that will permit greenhouse gas emissions. But it is not greenhouse gases we need to fear, it is the action or, in this case, the inaction of the Sun.

At the very moment the Earth is on the cusp of what is likely to be a very long cooling and possibly a full scale repeat of the last Ice Age, all the engines of government, nationally and internationally, are trying to inhibit the discovery, extraction, and use of energy reserves that will be needed to cope with climate changes that will impact millions and, ultimately, billions of people.

All the wind turbines and solar panels in the world will not keep you warm in your home or apartment when a short or long term cooling of the Earth occurs. Ironically, as the Greens rant about so-called endangered polar bears in the Arctic, the bears are far more likely to survive than humans.

What controls the Earth's climate? The Sun!

[Mels_Smileys45]

Its predicted that before global warming there could be a period of extreme cold because of changing ocean currents, caused by the poles ice caps melting. Also if the Earth follows the same pattern it has for like forever we should be heading into a new ice age as the Earth goes from an elliptical orbit to a roundish one.


BTW, here in Tn, we have not had a winter this year. In fact, the trees are blooming.

[mfgbypooter]

fuck I'm sick of winter.

*

[El Comandante]

It's hard to understand this stuff. It's counterintuitive to think global warming can actually contribute to an ice age. You have to think in terms of thousands of years. It's easier for people to comfort themselves with anecdotal evidence.

[N Fiddledog]

Its predicted that before global warming there could be a period of extreme cold because of changing ocean currents, caused by the poles ice caps melting.

I believe you're talking about the ocean conveyor belt, or thermohaline circulation (THC), right? Kind of like what happened in the movie The Day After Tomorrow. Yeah, that's sci-fi. There are a few scientists who have postulated that theory in relation to global warming, but even the climate hysterics of the IPCC consider it a low probability. It's not happening right now. They monitor THC. If it was slowing, or had stopped you'd hear about it.

The most common explanation for the current cooling is La Nina (pdf) (http://icecap.us/images/uploads/This_La_Nina_Likely_To_Have_Legs.pdf). You can think of it as the opposite of El Nino. They think this one might go well into 2008.

La Ninas bring more drought and summer heat waves, landfalling hurricanes, large tornado outbreaks, spring floods, winter snows and cold outbreaks than their more famous counterpart, El Nino,

There's also this...

As to whether this strong La Nina and strongly negative PDO this winter is the start of the new cold period or just another false alarm like 1998-2001, the next year or so will
tell. The last three phases each lasted 25-30 years and we are 30 years since the last
change called the Great Pacific Climate Shift so it appears increasingly likely this time
the change is for real. If it is, you can expect more La Ninas, fewer weaker El Ninos and a global scale cooling.

If indeed the sun which many solar scientists believe is about to go into a quiet mode
seen only seen every 200 to 400 years, this may be very interesting indeed.

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/The_La_Nina_and_Global_Cooling.pdf

[YWD67]

Fiddledog, CNSNews.com? Parent company NewsMax.
soulxtc, National Post? The Canadian version of NewMax.

Couldn't one of you guys pick maybe a couple of sources that were not so far right that they are off the scale.
Still hanging on to the far right and there preachings soulxtc. Considering they are the ones who are pushing to get rid of net neutrality, I just cant understand how you can agree with them.
Just for the record, down here in SW Florida this has been one of the warmest winters in 30 years. Trees usualy start budding and leafing the second week of March here. They started two weeks ago instead. Sea temps. are running 3-5 degrees above normal from the Big Bend area to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico.

Remember the Ice Man that was found in Otztal Alps in 1991. He died and his body became covered by snow and ice around 3300 B.C. The warming of that part of Europe over the last 25 years lead to the body being exposed and discovered after almost 6,000 years of ice and snow cover. http://www.american.edu/TED/iceman.htm

As for a possible decrease in solar activity, that seems to go counter to the increase in solar flare actvity over the last 20 years.

Some people will deny global warming whether it is man made or caused by nature.
That is they will deny it till sea levels rise up to the top of their mouths.

Thanks guys for this thread. It has been sometime since I have been in a good debatable
forum with some of the other old timers. :icon_thum :icon_thum :icon_thum
The only thing that is missing is Seph......... HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! WHAT AM I SAYING??????

[Pooter's Left Nut]

Some people will deny global warming whether it is man made or caused by nature.
That is they will deny it till sea levels rise up to the top of their mouths.



Guess who will deny it at least until I get that first splash by an ocean wave.

p

[Mels_Smileys45]

It was so hot here last year some of the trees DIED (along with lots of people)! Ive never heard or seen that happen. Now we in the South are use to the heat, so when southerners start dieing from heat stroke, something is wrong. I really hope its not that hot this year as I work in the hot weather but so far its been the warmest Jan and Feb I can recall. We hit 80 in Feb!!! Thats off the scale.

When I was a kid it snowed all the time. We actually had to make up school days, every year, in the summer because school was out so much. We have only had about 2 decent snowfalls in the last 10 years but the weather was changing even before that. The younger Gen doesnt realize that because they havent been around long enough to see things change. I can only imagine how the weathers climate will be in another 20 years. I dont know why its changing, I have ideas, but I do know it is changing and at a VERY fast pace.


Now this next bit is interresting. Tornadoes. One never hit my town before , at least there is no record of it, but in 2000 a big one hit. Then in 2002 we were hit again. 2004, yep another one. 2008 brought even more. What the hell is going on here? What are the chances of a tornado hiting the same place twice? How about 4 times in 8 years? We have actually had two of the tornadoes, in different years follow the same path and wipe out all the new building we just built.

In 2001 my city built a tornado memorial monument for all the victims that died here. I didnt think it was a good idea as some things are best forgotten. Maybe we are being smited for errecting a monument that doesnt involve Jesus. Every time we are hit by tornadoes it seems to target churches and old people. Hmmmmmm


The climate is changing and I dont know why. I just know that it is.

[Krell]

Mels, localized changes like that can also be due to the shift of the jetstream.

I moved to Seattle to get away from that freakin heat and humidity, I have no intentions of returning.

.

[El Comandante]

Big corporations and right wing politicians have waged a misinformation campaign to create doubt and controversy despite a nearly universal scientific consensus. These so called scientists who say it's colder than ever would never have an audience for this BS if it were not for the press which is all about the controversy rather than the truth. The fact is less ice means more open water which absorbs more heat which means less ice... ect..... Global warming does not mean that it will be hotter everywhere. It only means that high temperatures will be more extreme than usual in some places. Were not talking by 10 or 20 degrees necessarily... but if a 2 - 3 degree swing kills off whole ecosystems then the effect is devastating. Forget polar bears. Think about krill populations and vast areas of coral that just die off with a 2-3 degree swing.