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26 Apr 09 - (Excerpts) "The end of the world has always been a
popular theme for various religions and for doomsayers in general.
"The latest version, of course, is Al Gore’s prediction that the Earth
is on fire from “global warming” and we have to buy his carbon credits
to avoid it. Even President Obama is preaching this absurd, baseless
nonsense in order to drum up votes in Congress for his economy-killing
“cap-and-trade” scheme to tax all energy use.
"A real, science-based apocalyptic scenario exists and humanity has had
a taste of it over its brief 10,000 years on Earth. It has to do with
solar cycles during which there is a significant reduction of magnetic
storms, otherwise known as sunspots, on the engine of our solar system.
These cycles are closely tracked and we are now in Solar Cycle 23.
"James A. Marusek, a nuclear physicist and engineer, recently wrote
about the current cycle and I will excerpt his article. He believes
there are two paths ahead and each is marked with a “Danger” signpost.
“It is now evident,” Marusek writes, “that the Grand Maxima state that
has persisted during most of the 20th century has come to an abrupt
end.” Older solar cycles averaged 797 spotless days, more than twice
that of recent ones. They accounted for the cold spells often called
little ice ages.
“We are now at a crossroad,” writes Marusek. “Two paths lie before us.
Down one path lies monstrous solar storms. Down the other path lies
several decades of crushing cold temperatures and global famine.”
"Our most current experience with the latter has been the cycle that
began around 1998 when the Earth’s average temperatures began to cool.
It has been accompanied by glaciers that have begun to grow, increasing
ice at the North and South Poles, and snowfall in desert nations that
have not seen snow in their recorded history.
"If the current solar cycle, devoid of sunspots and closing in on some
six hundred days continues, solar scientists have a name for it, a
“Dalton Minimum” or a “Maunder Minimum.” It is still too early to say if
the Sun will take this route. The alternative is a period of very
intense solar storms.
"Either way, the result would wreak havoc on the Earth. Fewer sunspots
will mean a colder Earth and that means reduced production of the crops
we depend upon for food for ourselves and for the livestock that provide
part of our diet. The alternative is massive solar storms that produce
magnetic field energy that is released in the form of huge magnetic
flares.
"The effect of such flares could destroy the large extra high voltage
power transformers in the United States and other nations. Replacing
such transformers would take over a year and each cost in the area of
ten million dollars.
"Try to imagine an electrical blackout that lasts
months, even years.
"Too much magnetic activity destroys the electrical system. Too little
brings on either a little ice age or triggers the next full scale one.
The Earth is at the end of the 10,000 to 11,500 year cycle between ice
ages, so the potential for the latter scenario is very real. When it
arrives, it will do so very swiftly.
"A nation without electricity with millions of people unable to light,
heat or cool their homes or apartments, to use any appliance, to control
traffic, to use any communications, to function based on modern
technology is almost beyond our imagination.
"Thus, while politicians and other charlatans preach “global warming”,
talk of green jobs, and refuse to permit energy industries to have
access to oil, natural gas, or coal, while planning to tax the emissions
from what energy we do use, the Sun has other plans."
See entire article by Alan Caruba:
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2009/04/solar-scenarios.html |