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5 Reasons We’re Headed For A Little Ice Age

Image source: evilincandescentbulb.wordpress

Image source: evilincandescentbulb.wordpress

My fellow off-the-gridders, what I’m about to say might come as a bit of a shock — but I’m here to tell you that climate change is real, and it’s already happening.

Yes, I declare that I believe in climate change. However, here’s what differentiates my conclusions from that of your typical global warming or climate change (or whatever) alarmists: I believe that …

  • The global temperature is moving in the opposite direction of the general consensus.
  • This has absolutely nothing to do with human influence

To put it succinctly, the temperature is making a break for the bottom of the thermometer, and if we think that our SUVs are the cause of this … well, that would be just peachy, but we’d still be wrong.

Let’s dive right in: Here are 5 logical reasons why the globe is headed for a little ice age. For this list, we’ll start with No. 5:

No. 5. The Past Three Winters Were Abnormally Tough

It does offer a bit of anecdotal irony, often met with a chuckle here and there, when global warming advocates (sorry, I keep on forgetting that they call themselves “climate changers” now) are forced to cancel their various forums and meetings … due to frigid winter weather. But I digress.

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We’re still awaiting the data to be compiled and analyzed from this past winter of 2015, but let’s take a glance at the 2013-14 winter. According to NOAA, last winter’s wonderland wasn’t exactly a bed of roses, having broken lots and lots of firmly held low-temperature records in the continental US. It was the 34th coldest period that the 48 lower states have experienced since 1895. And while California recorded hotter temps, the article says that…

Continuing what was seen in 2013, the number of daily record-low temperatures outnumbered the number of record-high temperatures nationally in early 2014, according to NCDC statistics compiled by meteorologist Guy Walton of The Weather Channel.

And even though NBC’s post says that 2015’s winter appears to have averaged 15 degrees below the usual, they’re also saying that it’s all due to a “stubborn jet stream” and the “luck of the draw.” Thus, where there aren’t opportunities to cook up global warming statistics, then it must be “bad luck” to have a bad winter. Right. Well, I hope they’re feeling lucky, because I’m not convinced that we are.

No. 4. Ice Affected Shipping Routes

Who else might hold a fairly sizeable amount of stock in global temperatures? Well, if anything, I’d ask the folks who actually depend on these findings — because if they miscalculate, then they can’t bring home the bacon. How about those in the commercial shipping industry? Let’s see what they’ve been experiencing over the course of the last 5 years. Funny I should ask, because according to the Maritime Executive, it seems as though the Northwestern passage has been giving commercial boats the cold shoulder:

This [2014] is the first time in five years that the Northwestern passage did not fully open. According to Dr. Genki Sagawa of the Global Ice Center, a specialist in polar science, lower temperatures and few low-pressure systems that help ice to break up are the causes for limited melting this year.

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No. 3. Russian Scientists Say It’s Cooling

Russia loves the cold, because … well … that’s just Russia. In a way, they’re already hardened to tough winters, but their recent research has made even the bear feel a slight shiver.

Experts of the United Nations in regular reports publish data said to show that the Earth is approaching a catastrophic global warming, caused by increasing emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. However, observations of the Sun show that as for the increase in temperature, carbon dioxide is ‘not guilty’ and as for what lies ahead in the upcoming decades, it is not catastrophic warming, but a global, and very prolonged, temperature drop. — Habibullo Abdussamatov, Dr. Sc. Head of Space research laboratory of the Pulkovo Observatory, head of the Russian/Ukrainian joint project Astrometria

The above quote was taken from a recent study, conducted by Moscow’s head of space research, and judging from the way it was written, I can tell that this doc wasn’t kidding.

And neither are the Russian seafarers. While the US Coast Guard just recently filed applications to construct three new icebreakers, the Russians are in the process of adding a dozen more to the 40 that they already have.

No. 2. The Increase in Price of Rock Salt

Now let’s switch gears for a moment, because I’d like to move from the topic of commercial shipping, and over to commodities. Rock salt commodities, that is.

More particularly, if you live in my neck of the woods, you’ve probably heard quite a bit about municipal rock salt shortages in your local news during these last two winters. There’s a very good reason for this.

  • According to the US Geological Survey’s data, the price of rock salt was $25.84/ton back in 2005.
  • In the USGS data from 2014, the price more than DOUBLED to $55.00/ton.

Now, there are two primary factors that could influence this massive price increase, as our Economics 101 textbooks would dictate. There must either be a 53 percent decrease in supply or a 53 percent increase in demand, correct? Well, after doing some quick math, it seems apparent that this price increase is due to a rapid increase in demand (especially since the US imported 8 percent more salt in 2014 than we did in 2005 — and we saw an increased consumption of all salt products by 9 percent in that same period).

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Perhaps there are simply more roads these days, right? The more roads we have, the more salt we’d need. But again, this factor falls short of explaining the 53 percent rock salt pricing increase. What I’m saying here is this: with whatever seems to be happening right now, something has driven our need for rock salt toward an estimated demand increase for a commodity that is used to melt the ice and snow. It seems to me that the culprit has been a couple of tough, cold winters recently — and make no mistake, folks, there will be more to come.

No. 1. The Sun Doesn’t Care About Our Carbon Footprints

Image source: thelongview.com.au

Image source: thelongview.com.au

There’s a very good reason why the Russians watch the sky and why none of our globe’s changing climate will have had anything to do with how much CO2 that humans produce: because the sun is bigger than humans (and the earth for that matter) and doesn’t give a rip about our so-called carbon footprints.

I come to this conclusion based on a historical perspective, and what we’ve learned of sunspots over much of the last millennium. Essentially, when there are lots and lots of sunspots, there is a warm earth — and inversely, when there are next-to-zilch sunspots, the earth goes cold. (The more the sunspots, the brighter the sun.) And this is why there’s a chillingly close correlation between sunspot activity and global temperatures, as we look through our history books.  Here’s an abridged explanation of this phenomenon in an article from Peter Ferrara of Forbes:

The Little Ice Age, following the historically warm temperatures of the Medieval Warm Period, which lasted from about AD 950 to 1250, has been attributed to natural cycles in solar activity, particularly sunspots. A period of sharply lower sunspot activity known as the Wolf Minimum began in 1280 and persisted for 70 years until 1350. That was followed by a period of even lower sunspot activity that lasted 90 years from 1460 to 1550 known as the Sporer Minimum. During the period 1645 to 1715, the low point of the Little Ice Age, the number of sunspots declined to zero for the entire time. This is known as the Maunder Minimum, named after English astronomer Walter Maunder. That was followed by the Dalton Minimum from 1790 to 1830, another period of well below normal sunspot activity.

sunspot activity 2Do you remember our Russian sky watcher? Well, in the study I mentioned, he includes a graph, which shows what we’re seeing in sunspot activity up to 2009 — and his projections appear to have been quite accurate.

Just how accurate are we talking? Well, the image below shows NASA’s predictions for Solar Cycle 24, and it seems that they’re agreeing with Dr. Abdussamatov’s assessments.

So, why is NASA predicting lower sunspot activity, simply because we’re having a week Cycle 24? It’s just how the sun works. Cycle 24 dismally failed to meet expectations on sunspot number strengths, and because of this, 25 is going to end up with an even less eventful solar disk.

If the coming projections are correct, then that could explain why we’ve needed more salt, why winters have been getting a great deal more difficult, and why the Arctic sheet of ice has been doing a heck of a lot more growing these days … instead of shrinking … and leaving poor polar bears doing the doggie paddle and smiling for their commercial debut on global warming commercials.

It seems as though we are headed into another sunspot minimum period — and those have a tendency to last for several decades.

Do you agree or disagree? Share your thoughts in the section below:

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