Lorne Gunter: For climate cues, look to the sun

National Post ^ | 2012-03-07 | Lorne Gunter

[jerod]

Ottawa’s giant skating rink on the Rideau Canal was closed in February due to thin ice caused by unseasonably mild temperatures. Yet, at the same time, ice blocked the canals of Venice for the first time in recent memory as temperatures in the exquisite Italian city dropped to -10C for more than a week. In the Netherlands, canals were closed to commercial boat traffic because ice made them unnavigable — another unusual development.

Also in early February, fountains in southern France froze over. Polish rail lines were chocked with metres of snow. Swiss villages were cut off by record accumulations this winter. In Japan, tens of thousands of residents were confined to their homes because there was too little removal equipment to clear all the white stuff. At one point three weeks ago, more than 140,000 people worldwide were reportedly stranded by snow.

So which is likely to be the new norm: North America’s mild winter, or Europe’s and Asia’s cold, snowy season? To hear climate alarmists and environmentalists tell it, the world will soon be without winter. There will be no more backyard skating rinks or Arctic sea ice to sustain the polar bears. Snow will become a rarity in much of Europe, and tornados such as the ones that devastated large swaths of the American Midwest last weekend will become more commonplace.

But that’s not what some solar physicists are predicting...

[jerod]

Nice and mild this year in the Maritimes... But last year it wasn't even spring like until July.

[hawkins]

I can hardly believe it. The sun affects the warmth and coolness of the planet. All this time... this precious time... I was sure it was just Obama’s teleprompter.

[mbarker12474]

Astounding!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Solid records of the connection between solar activity and Earth’s temperatures go back at least 300 years. If so-called proxy records are included — evidence from tree rings and ice-core samples, for instance — then the connection is thousands of years old

Good quantitative sunspot records only extend back to 1610, at the earliest. Wilhem Herschel showed a strong negative correlation between sunspot number and the price of wheat in London, and concluded that high sunspot numbers are associated with warmer temperatures on earth. He was correct.

[sauropod]

.

[dhs12345]

It is foolish to exclude the sun from the possible causes of rising temperatures. If they are rising.

A scientist should be fired for incompetence. Then again, agenda trumps the scientific process.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !