Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Somebody really should do something...

Maybe a conference, a working group, pass a law. Better yet an inter-governmental working group planning a conference in the hopes of passing a law:

The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted.

The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots -- is an influencing factor for climate on earth.

Of course, every sunspot has a silver-lining. Can anyone say, "New Funding Stream Possibility"? However, any proposal for funding could be tricky. Afterall, how will the workshop conclusions be implemented?

As with any consensus riven process, what was the original reax to those who previously predicted this situ and pronounced upon the possible impact on climate change:

In 2005, a pair of astronomers from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson attempted to publish a paper in the journal Science. The pair looked at minute spectroscopic and magnetic changes in the sun. By extrapolating forward, they reached the startling result that, within 10 years, sunspots would vanish entirely. At the time, the sun was very active. Most of their peers laughed at what they considered an unsubstantiated conclusion.

The journal ultimately rejected the paper as being too controversial.

Mmmm, the purity of "settled science".

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