SUN OF A GUN
Calgary Sun, 18 May 2007
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Corbella_Licia/2007/05/18/4189659.html
By Licia Corbella
A few weeks ago in a column I wrote about David Suzuki's rudeness and
hypocrisy I admitted that similar to that green guru, I too love this
planet and try to have as small a negative environmental impact as
possible but unlike him, I don't believe that human-made CO2 is the
main driver of global warming.
I received hundreds of e-mails -- most recounting often hilarious
stories of run-ins people had with Suzuki, finding out for themselves
that his TV persona is a lot friendlier than his off-camera one.
But it was an e-mail from a fella named Gerald in the Niagara region,
that indicates just how good a job the man-made global warming
believers have been at selling their message.
"If humans are not the cause of global warming ... who is?" Gerald
wrote.
My response was: "Gee, Gerald. Can you really not think of anything?
Nothing at all?"
Then I suggested he find the nearest child and ask them what makes the
earth warm.
The next day I got a reply. "Do you mean the sun?" he queried, in all
sincerity.
"Yes, Gerald. That big, burning yellow ball up in the sky is, not
surprisingly, the main driver of global warming."
Yesterday, world renowned paleoclimatologist and geology professor at
Carleton University in Ottawa, Dr. Tim Patterson, was in Calgary to
pass that basic message on. Though his message was rather technical.
He brought reams of proof, scientific studies, graphs and the like to
back up his claims.
Indeed, one of the more interesting, if not alarming statements
Patterson made before the Friends of Science luncheon is satellite
data shows that by about the year 2020 the next solar cycle is going
to be solar cycle 25 -- the weakest one since the Little Ice Age (that
started in the 13th century and ended around 1860) a time when people
living in London, England, used to walk on a frozen Thames River and
food was scarcer.
"This should be a great strategic concern in Canada because nobody is
farming north of us." In other words, Canada -- the great bread basket
of the world -- just might not be able to grow grains in much of the
prairies.
After the Little Ice Age, "things warmed up precipitously with no help
from carbon dioxide," pointed out Patterson, in a telephone interview.
Indeed, the world warmed up until about 1940 and then the temperatures
started to fall until the late 1970s when scientists started
predicting another ice age.
"Post World War II, as the world started cooling, CO2 was going up
like crazy. All the evidence shows that warming periods were all solar
driven and that there is no correlation between CO2 and temperature."
But solar flaring on its own, says Patterson, does not account for
most of the warming -- which is an increase of 0.8C since the end of
the Little Ice Age. It's only when its coupled with evidence about
galactic cosmic rays, do all the historic warming (and cooling) pieces
fit together.
Cosmic rays -- caused by the explosion of supernovas -- constantly
bombard the Earth.
The more cosmic rays, the more cloud cover and the cooler the earth.
However, when the sun is flaring -- as it is now -- it essentially
blows away the cosmic rays and the earth warms.
That, however, is expected to come to an end in 2020.
As the saying goes, by then all of the billions of dollars wasted
battling CO2 emissions, rather than pollutants, for instance, will be
money pumped down the CO2 sink hole.
In 2020 hindsight on the great global warming scare will be 20/20. It
won't be a pretty picture.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Celibacy in healthy human beings is a form of
insanity. -- Captain Compassion
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
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