Canadian Scientists Fear Global Cooling

By Nathan Burchfiel (Bio | Archive)
February 8, 2008 - 15:33 ET

Investor's Business Daily is reporting something we haven't seen much of in the media since the 1970s: concerns about global cooling. You read that correctly: cooling.

Kenneth Tapping, a researcher at Canada's National Research Council, wants to look for evidence of increased sunspot activity, according to IBD. "The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century."

A "solar hibernation" in the 17th Century "corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715," IBD reported. "Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe."

Tapping's concerns fly in the face of the current media drumbeat about global warming, which would have Americans believe the Earth is on course for catastrophic climate changes unless the federal government (i.e. taxpayers) steps in to save the day.

The media have warned of impending climate changes for at least the last century. Most recently, global warming has been the, er, hot topic. But in the 1970s it was global cooling.

Could Tapping's concerns be the turning point in the media's environmentalist crusade? It's more likely the media will simply ignore - or maybe even viciously attack him - as a global warming "denier" or equally loaded buzz word commonly used to attack or discredit scientists and others who don't buy into the global warming catastrophe hype.


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Of course, the media could

February 8, 2008 - 15:43 ET by Chris Norman

Of course, the media could lump all of this together under their new term: "Climate Change" - something we used to call the weather...

Here Comes The Sun

February 8, 2008 - 16:53 ET by zeestephen

I was watching The NatGeo Channel last night.  They had a special about sudden chills in Earth's climate over the last 2m years.  They went through the usual suspects - volcanic dust, sun spots.  Then they concluded with this: "Man made global warming is an indisputable fact.  Some scientists now believe it will trigger a new catastrophic Ice Age."  The reason - melting glaciers will divert the great ocean currents and freeze out Europe and North America.  When every possible weather variable can be traced to global warming, we have left Science and entered Religion.        

I saw the same show a couple

February 8, 2008 - 23:58 ET by ahusser

I saw the same show a couple months back. The scientists in the show really never even mentioned global warming man made or otherwise, but just stated their observations and some conclusions. (which in my opinion kind of left out any possibility of man made global warming) Out of the blue this "indisputed fact" comes out from the narrator. Apparently the producers or director/writers had to inject their "opinion" cause the actual scientists weren't pushing the agenda. I wrote a letter to Nat Geo for their blatant bias. But , of course, never heard anything back. The show is very good and basically says without actually saying so that global cooling and warming is cyclical (duh!) and very dependent on the sun.

Gulf Stream Canard

February 9, 2008 - 00:07 ET by scamorama

I didn't see the show, and it's just as well. I'd have been throwing things at the screen.

Especially at this:

"The reason - melting glaciers will divert the great ocean currents and freeze out Europe and North America." 

You could shut off the Gulf Stream completely and Europe wouldn't freeze. And the only way to shut it off is to stop the rotation of the planet.

Chris... I still call it

February 8, 2008 - 17:01 ET by Clear thinker

Chris...

I still call it 'weather'. Even my wife has stopped with the global warming garbage, so I'm effecting someone. 

The Conservative movement is about to be reborn.

I think we need to greatly

February 8, 2008 - 15:47 ET by mattm

I think we need to greatly increase greenhouse gas emissions.

 

If the earth cools in 10

February 8, 2008 - 15:57 ET by goldbough

If the earth cools in 10 years, then the environmentalists will say their policies worked. But how will we warm the earth again? It's a never-ending battle.

What policies

February 8, 2008 - 16:30 ET by Mike From Canmore

For the most part, politicians haven't implemented significant policy changes.  They've blustered about it but have not implemented.  Unfortuntely, with Romney out, that may change.  All remaining possibilities espouse about reducing climate change. The world's CO2 output has gone up by over 1300% since 2003, (which is still a pittance compared to nature).  There isn't a snowball's chance in hell CO2 output will be reduced in 10 years.  It is only going up no matter what the taxes are.  Let's hope the republicans get a majority in at least one of the houses so it can keep the executive branch at bay.  In addition, hopefully, this cooling will come along just in time to stop the insanity of the proposed policies.  If the warmmongers really understood what we would have to do to curb emissions, i.e. live in caves or build a WACKLOAD of nuclear power plants, they'd have 2nd thoughts.  Adapting to an earth that is 1 deg. C warmer earth is nothing when compared to an earth that returns to the LIA.

That being said, you're probably right.  They'll spin it to make it look like humans caused the cooling.  I would guess something along the lines of aerosols from China.

There are 2 types of politicians.  Those who know AGW is a sham and stupid ones.

Those damn commies!  The

February 8, 2008 - 16:32 ET by Clear thinker

Those damn commies! 

The Conservative movement is about to be reborn.

   As a resident of the

February 8, 2008 - 16:02 ET by MidAmerica

   As a resident of the corn belt I can tell you, global cooling is by far the bigger threat to all life on earth.  Just one year of cool wet weather could starve millions.  Get a few volcanoes coughing up and a dimmer sun cycle and we would see catastrophe this year not in a hundred years like the warmers prognosticate.

Where are they?

February 8, 2008 - 16:22 ET by scamorama

In the last 2 months or so, there has been, what, ONE sunspot?

I recall reading that the longer a cycle takes to start, the less intense it is (feel free to correct that).

Where is Cycle 24?

All of this record cold weather and...

February 8, 2008 - 16:34 ET by Gary Hall

All of this record cold weather and... Hmm, no sunspots as of late:

We Damn Sure NEED Global Warming ...

February 8, 2008 - 17:03 ET by benjamingates

... ever spent a winter in Chicago - or CANADA, for God's sake?

Let's not even talk about the -70 degree temperatures common to Alaska, Norway, and Russia.

WHEREVER YOU CAN FIND CARBON ... DUMP IT IN THE ATMOSPHERE ... FART MORE ... RAISE MORE COWS ... and above all ... DO THE OPPOSITE OF ANYTHING AL GORE SAYS!!!

Volcanoes..funny you should mention

February 8, 2008 - 17:41 ET by metrox

There is one Volcano that is of great interest because it is due to blow any time now and because of its proximity to the equator could be especially potent (for its ability to cool the equatorial waters around the globe).

The name is

TUNGURAHUA

its nearby cousin GUAGUA PICHINCHA is also getting more active...

weekly reports here:

http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/

As for SC24, it's no where in sight yet.

This is a good site for tracking the latest:

http://www.solarcycle24.com/

 

 

Qundary

February 8, 2008 - 17:52 ET by Jerry Mack

I am in a quandary! Do I buy more heaters or more air conditioners?

be safe, not sorry

February 8, 2008 - 19:52 ET by Rackie

I'd go with heat conditioners, but that's just me.

  There is such a thing. 

February 8, 2008 - 20:02 ET by MidAmerica

  There is such a thing.  Now everyone can hedge their bets on which way the temps go.

A blast from the past...

February 8, 2008 - 21:01 ET by PrairieSky

Boy, is that a blast from the past. I'm dating myself here, but when I was in elementary school in the 60's and early 70's, I remember very well being told that we were heading into a "new ice age", and were given all kinds of frightening predictions of what the world would be like when we were adults...none of which came true. So now we are supposed to believe without question all this hype about global warming?? I guess we'll just have to wait another 30-40 years to see what happens...

The leftie notion of the

February 9, 2008 - 00:02 ET by ahusser

The leftie notion of the moment. Global warming has stuck around the longest. Don't know why. Has beat out Global Cooling, the ozone layer, acid rain and nuclear winter.