Brass monkeys
From the It’s the sun, stupid Department. Michael Mann to tweet #KochMachine in 3, 2, 1…
According to Professor Lockwood the late 20th century was a period when the sun was unusually active and a so called ‘grand maximum’ occurred around 1985. Since then the sun has been getting quieter.
By looking back at certain isotopes in ice cores, he has been able to determine how active the sun has been over thousands of years.
Following analysis of the data, Professor Lockwood believes solar activity is now falling more rapidly than at any time in the last 10,000 years.
He found 24 different occasions in the last 10,000 years when the sun was in exactly the same state as it is now – and the present decline is faster than any of those 24.
Based on his findings he’s raised the risk of a new Maunder minimum from less than 10% just a few years ago to 25-30%.
And a repeat of the Dalton solar minimum which occurred in the early 1800s, which also had its fair share of cold winters and poor summers, is, according to him, ‘more likely than not’ to happen.
He believes that we are already beginning to see a change in our climate – witness the colder winters and poor summers of recent years – and that over the next few decades there could be a slide to a new Maunder minimum.
But don’t worry, warming from CO2 will save the alarmists’ careers:
Any global cooling caused by this natural phenomenon would ultimately be temporary, and if projections are correct, the long term warming caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases would eventually swamp this solar-driven cooling.
Phew.
Australian Climate Madness 
You must be enjoying the blogger’s life these days, Simon. I certainly hope so. That state of mind would be well-deserved. Very well-deserved.
We’re not quite coasting along in neutral yet, but things are markedly different from the steep uphill slog of recent years, are they not?
Indeed so! There’s still a long way to go, but we are definitely heading in the right direction. Thanks for your support! 🙂
“But don’t worry, warming from CO2 will save the alarmists’ careers:”
By the time CO2 has any effect on the climate, the alarmist, their children and grandchildren and ………great, great, great , great……………………………………………………. great grandchildren
will be long gone. !
Mini Ice Age?
On the one hand we are looking at some serious problems for agriculture and standard of living in general if the planet cools. eg A 2C drop could cut Canadas arable land in half.
On the other hand maybe this is the only chance we will get to snap the world out of the irrational AGW hysteria.
In a rational world we would be pressing ahead with the kind of development that has been the norm for the past 1000 years. Instead we find ourselves in the 21st century still fighting against the kind of mindset that had Aztec virgins dropped into lakes…
…or cohorts of them waiting in the after life. It’s all indistinguishable, the maddnesses of the late 20th century and early 21st century.
The flower-power devotees of The Age of Aquarius must be living in hell.
Just keep that CO2 coming.
The perfect title:-)