By Lawrence Solomon
In yet another sign that the Earth could be heading in to a period of global cooling, NASA reports that the solar wind is now at a 50-year low, the lowest that NASA has seen. This change in solar activity, which began to occur about a decade ago, coincides with the end of the climb in global temperatures that had been underway for decades.
“What we’re seeing is a long term trend, a steady decrease in pressure that began sometime in the mid-1990s,” explains Arik Posner, NASA’s Ulysses Program Scientist in Washington DC.
“How unusual is this event?
“It’s hard to say. We’ve only been monitoring solar wind since the early years of the Space Age—from the early 60s to the present. Over that period of time, it’s unique. How the event stands out over centuries or millennia, however, is anybody’s guess. We don’t have data going back that far.”
Read the rest of this story at National Post (Canada).
Imagine the sun making a difference in the earth’s climate? The IPCC did not.
Have the world’s governments covered an alternative scenario of colder temperatures with lower food supplies? And, an increased need for energy – ie more power plants? That would be yet another oops by our fearless global leaders.
The real reasons why the major capitalist powers have been slow to bother to do anything substantial about climate change may be because catastrophic climate change solves two of the major problems confronting capitalism. These are:
1. ‘Surplus’ populations and the threat the ‘great unwashed’ presents to the status quo and stable capitalism.
2. Control of resources: countries decimated by climate change are then ripe for exploitation.
The Jason investigation conducted back in the late 1970s paralleled the ones conducted by the Club of Rome conference on ‘over-population’ initiated even earlier in 1974 (Jason’s major objective was in any case, preparing plans for conducting nuclear war against the Soviet Union and China).
“Mandatory programs may be needed and we should be considering these possibilities now,†the document continued, adding, “Would food be considered an instrument of national power? … Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who can’t/won’t control their population growth?†— Henry Kissinger, ‘National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.’ Dec. 10, 1974.[2]
“…There are only two possible ways in which a world of 10 billion people can be averted. Either the current birth rates must come down more quickly. Or the current death rates must go up… There is no other way… There are, of course, many ways in which the death rates can go up. In a thermonuclear age, war can accomplish it very quickly and decisively. Famine and disease are nature’s ancient checks on population growth, and neither one has disappeared from the scene… To put it simply: Excessive population growth is the greatest single obstacle to the economic and social advancement of most of the societies in the developing world.â€â€” Robert McNamara, Oct. 2, 1979
Well to paraphrase to McNamara, ‘climate change is nature’s way to check population growth’. Meanwhile, under the guise of ‘technofixes’, capitalism just sees ways of making money out of climate change.
Solar Chaos: contribution from the sun is included in all the GCM upon which the IPCC report has been built.
All the signs point to a colder world ahead so it is the hight of insanity to divert food production to produce biofuels. Focus should be on increased food production now to store food in the event of future crop failures and fewer productive acres of land due to a colder world which could start impacting the world with much colder climates starting in 2012.
I think you can remove a lot of the political heat over global warming by calling it pollution. Anyone who lives downwind of a big city will advise you! There plainly are other issues such as biofuel replacing food crops. Energy production in winter is not in my view being addressed as it should; one good idea though is the use of the Sahara Desert for photovoltaic electricity which could be exported to Europe.
Call it what you like, but CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT POLLUTION!!! Changing terms doesn’t change reality. Either CO2 is heating up the Earth and needs to be virtually halted, or it isn’t. If it’s not causing global warming, we have no reason to regulate it!!! Just call it what it is! Carbon Dioxide – a natural, necessary and harmless component of the Earth’s atmosphere.