Old Farmers Almanac: Global cooling may be underway

Comment #4

Todd — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:06:15 GMT

The events you're talking about are not engines of cooling. Any global effects are temporary, not the kind of long-term phenomena that is described in this blog topic. When talking about "global cooling" we are talking about a long-term trend of cooling, not a one- or two-year dip in temperatures.

Comment #3

time*treat — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:24:44 GMT

Yeah the cause was wrong, but the effect was right. I think the movie did a good job of showing the (potential) effects of sudden climate change on humanity. As far as a warm event leading to cooling (and vice-versa), hurricanes are massive heat engines and volcanic eruptions heat up the surrounding area (check out pinatubo-1991, tambora-1815) but can drop temps worldwide for many years. 1816 was the year without a summer.<br

Comment #2

Todd — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:43:41 GMT

<br />It is indeed the Sun -- as well as the Earth's many-thousand-year cycle of elongating and then flattening its eliptical orbit around the sun -- that causes the overall changes in Earth's surface temperatures. Yes, mankind may be able to have a very slight influence, but anything we can do (the tiny little specks that we are) is vastly overshadowed by unflinching, unsympathetic Mother Nature.

Comment #1

time*treat — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:55:37 GMT

A good take on this theory is the movie "The Day After Tomorrow".

Original Blog Entry: Old Farmers Almanac: Global cooling may be underway

angelm — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:58:50 GMT

Old Farmers Almanac: Global cooling may be underway

DUBLIN, N.H. The Old Farmer's Almanac is going further out on a limb than usual this year, not only forecasting a cooler winter, but looking ahead decades to suggest we are in for global cooling, not warming.

Based on the same time-honored, complex calculations it uses to predict weather, the Almanac hits the newsstands on Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century.

We at the Almanac are among those who believe that sunspot cycles and their effects on oceans correlate with climate changes, writes meteorologist and climatologist Joseph D'Aleo. Studying these and other factor suggests that cold, not warm, climate may be our future.

It remains to be seen, said Editor-in-Chief Jud Hale, whether the human impact on global temperatures will cancel out or override any cooling trend.

We say that if human beings were not contributing to global warming, it would become real cold in the next 50 years, Hale said.

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