A Freeze Is Coming

Another inconvenient truth for the global warming hoaxers - and the rest of us:

"Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh," warns Phil Chapman writing in The Australian. Chapman is a geophysicist and astronautical engineer who was the first Australian to become a NASA astronaut.

"The scariest photo I have seen . . . is at http://www.spaceweather.com/, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory [SOHO], located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity," Chapman wrote, adding ominously that "what is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot."

"This is where SOHO comes in," he explained. "The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging eleven years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, #24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers."

That, he writes did not happen. "The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within twenty-four hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon."

Why? According to Chapman "there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790. Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots."

Not only is this a real threat, but the real consequences would be far more harrowing than anything Fat Albert has ever dreamed up:

How bad could a new little ice age be? "Much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do. There are many more people now, and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the U.S. and Canada." Global warming, he added, "would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it. Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it [such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate], and millions more will die from cold-related diseases."...

"The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another thousand years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for twenty years, the temperature would be 14 C cooler in 2027."

By then, he writes, "most of the advanced nations would have ceased to exist, vanishing under the ice, and the rest of the world would be faced with a catastrophe beyond imagining."

Yeah, Chapman sounds more than a little alarmist himself.  But he's not making up his evidence in the blatant furtherance of a nakedly extremist political agenda.  He's simply observing Sol, and watching it grow dimmer.

My conclusion?  Increase that carbon footprint.  Drive that SUV.  Crank up the smokestacks to maximum overdrive.  Eat beans like there's no tomorrow, and feed 'em to your pets as well.  Pump so much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere that we'll be able to retain as much of the diminished solar energy as possible.

And when people like Fat Albert come desperately beating on your door, don't answer them.  They'll deserve to freeze to death.