NASA Reports Earth Cooled

NASA’s Goddard Institute and three other major agencies that track the Earth’s temperature reported that the Earth cooled 0.7 degrees Celsius in 2007, taking the temperatures to where they were in 1930. This drop was the fastest since modern equipment has been used to measure the Earth’s temperature. Also, NASA’s Ulysses project reported the intensity of the solar wind was at its lowest level since the beginning of the space age. In addition, sunspots are at an extremely low level. For the first time since June 1913, we had a whole month this past August (2008) in which no visible sunspots were generated. Increased solar wind and sunspot activity increases the temperature on Earth, and decreases in these activities result in Earth’s temperature decreasing.

The sun’s intensity changes in fairly regular patterns, causing corresponding cooling and warming periods on Earth. Changes in the sun’s magnetic field appear to cause changes in sunspots in 11-year cycles. Longer cycles, called a Maunder Minimum, can lead to extended periods of extreme cold such as occurred in the Little Ice Age (ca. 1550-1850). For more information on this Global cooling detected by America’s top scientific agencies go to “The Day The Earth Cooled,” at www.ibdeditorials.com and search September 26, 2008.

It is just amazing, but the same IBD article said that as NASA was announcing that Earth is cooling at a rapid rate, ten Northeastern states lead by left-wing liberals entered into a coalition to impose a carbon cap-and-tax system that will wreak havoc with their economies. After the Lieberman-Warner economy-killing cap-and-tax bill died in Congress, these states should not be permitted to try to kill interstate commerce from the Potomac to the Maine-Canadian border. This interstate pact sounds like a violation of the Federal Commerce Clause. Clearly, more scientific information should be gathered and analyzed before making hasty decisions that devastate the economies of the entire Northeast.

[For deep background on long-term climate changes in North America, an interesting recent article you could peruse is “How Dogs Came to Run The World” on page 18 in July-August 2008 Natural History, published by The American Museum of Natural History. For background on long-term climate change in Europe the October 2008 National Geographic, stating on page 34, has an excellent article on how increasing cold weather from an advancing ice age was probably the primary cause of the end of the Neanderthals, due in part because their large bodies required about twice as many calories as modern man.]