But will that really matter if Solar Cycle 24 stays at minimum levels? A mild summer in the northern hemisphere (much as Australia, for example, is apparently having now) with not much ice melt followed by another cold winter is a real likelihood at this time and not just a matter for skeptics and AGW to take notice of.
I don’t mean that a chart of the coming months temperatures vs the previous year’s will continue to decline as it did in 2007 (it could well flat line for all that’s worth); however, one thing may well be finally true: people may have to come to the realization that climate change here on Earth is governed by the state of “Glowball Warmth” since it is the Sun’s output that is the underlaying fact behind global warmth no matter how it may be trending.
And if this cold-snap isn’t just a cold-snap and goes on to cause problems they may reassess their opinion about how bad “warming” actually is, too. Warm periods (and there have been warmer periods than just recently in human history) have historically been good to human civilization and, by logical extension, to nature as a whole because we have not (even at this time for much of the world) been far from subsistence. Cold, on the other hand, has been bad for everyone each and every time.
But will that really matter if Solar Cycle 24 stays at minimum levels?Yes! The solar effect is not that big.
A mild summer in the northern hemisphere (much as Australia, for example, is apparently having now)
Australia's summer is still above normal for January.
Though the cold and snow and ice is getting the headlines (as usually is the case in winter), look at where it's been warm -- and how widespread. The reason this is a cold January, climatologically, is due to the cold in the Pacific Ocean (La Nina) and the cold in central Asia and northern Africa, primarily. That may be due to a near-average tropical Atlantic, which may be experiencing a cooling effect from the La Nina in the Pacific.
since it is the Sun’s output that is the underlaying fact behind global warmth no matter how it may be trending.
If we didn't have the Sun we wouldn't have global warming; we'd be near absolute zero. Global warming is not currently due to changes in the Sun.
And if this cold-snap isn’t just a cold-snap and goes on to cause problems
Wait until NH summer.
Warm periods (and there have been warmer periods than just recently in human history) have historically been good to human civilization
Warm, yes. Rapid and unpredictable changes, no.