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Sun at its dimmest for nearly a century, say scientists...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/space/5194381/Sun-at-its-dimmest-for-nearly-a-century-say-scientists.html ^ | April 22nd, 20009

Posted on 04/22/2009 11:40:46 AM PDT by TaraP

The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period. Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity. Evidence from tree trunks and ice cores suggest that the Sun is calming down after an unusually high point in its activity. Professor Mike Lockwood, of Southampton University, believes that as well as the Sun's 11-year cycle, there is an underlying solar oscillation lasting hundreds of years. He suggests that 1985 marked the "grand maximum" in this long-term cycle and the Maunder Minimum in the 17th century marked its low point. "We are re-entering the middle ground after a period which has seen the Sun in its top 10% of activity," said Professor Lockwood. "We would expect it to be more than a hundred years before we get down to the levels of the Maunder Minimum." He added that the current slight dimming of the Sun is not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels. What we are seeing is consistent with a global temperature rise, not that the Sun is coming to our aid," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agw; globalwarming; sunspots; urlisnotthesource
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1 posted on 04/22/2009 11:40:46 AM PDT by TaraP
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To: TaraP; enough_idiocy; Desdemona; rdl6989; Little Bill; IrishCatholic; Normandy; ...
 




Beam me to Planet Gore !

2 posted on 04/22/2009 11:41:36 AM PDT by steelyourfaith ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." -Lady Thatcher)
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To: TaraP

Obama’s fault.


3 posted on 04/22/2009 11:41:40 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out (click my name)
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To: TaraP

Forget about the sun — the planet is doomed by my Chevy Tahoe.


4 posted on 04/22/2009 11:41:56 AM PDT by KC Burke (Men of intemperate minds can never be free...their passions forge their fetters.)
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To: TaraP

Professor Lockwood. “We would expect it to be more than a hundred years before we get down to the levels of the Maunder Minimum.”

He may live to see himself proven wrong.


5 posted on 04/22/2009 11:42:57 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: TaraP

Maybe the scientists investigating are just squinting more...?


6 posted on 04/22/2009 11:45:06 AM PDT by theDentist (Obama's media fires insults to blot out the sunlight, so Conservatives shall fight in the shade.)
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To: TaraP
Calling AlGore....
SAVE US!!!!
7 posted on 04/22/2009 11:45:10 AM PDT by evad (YES!! I WANT Fub0's Agenda TO FAIL!!!)
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To: TaraP

The hot air from my mouth has already doomed us all. Sorry, everyone.


8 posted on 04/22/2009 11:45:32 AM PDT by Wisconsinlady
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To: TaraP

Must be all that damn carbon dioxide.


9 posted on 04/22/2009 11:45:46 AM PDT by SandWMan (Even if you can't legislate morality, you can legislate morally.)
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To: TaraP
He added that the current slight dimming of the Sun is not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

I'm betting that this was the whole point of releasing his statement. He wanted to beat the "deniers" who would use this data to argue that the sun is the cause of "global warming" and human intervention is meaningless.

10 posted on 04/22/2009 11:45:47 AM PDT by mollynme (cogito, ergo freepum)
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To: TaraP
An otherwise intelligent friend of mine, explained that Global Warming is being temporarily Masked by Global Dimming.

There is no hope for these people.

11 posted on 04/22/2009 11:46:57 AM PDT by ChicagahAl (Don't blame me. I voted for Sarah.)
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To: mollynme

It may be that he fears that his grants for further research into solar cycles will not be funded unless he makes clear that it is all perfectly consistent with global warming dogma.


12 posted on 04/22/2009 11:49:05 AM PDT by CaptainMorgantown
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To: ChicagahAl

Ask him the BIG QUESTION — Should we eliminate all CO2 from the atmosphere?

I played this joke on one of these losers and boy were they mad when I told them what would happen if we could do that.


13 posted on 04/22/2009 11:49:30 AM PDT by Tarpon (You abolish your responsibilities, your surrender your rights.)
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To: mollynme

Which is true of course.


14 posted on 04/22/2009 11:49:57 AM PDT by americanophile
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To: TaraP
He added that the current slight dimming of the Sun is not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Nothing can reverse what isn't happening. Moron.

15 posted on 04/22/2009 11:50:21 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: TaraP

We just had our first sunspot in 45 days....


16 posted on 04/22/2009 11:51:32 AM PDT by Kozak (USA 7/4/1776 to 1/20/2009 Requiescat In Pace)
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To: chuck_the_tv_out

Last one out forgot to turn off the lights


17 posted on 04/22/2009 11:52:16 AM PDT by Vendome
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To: TaraP

But wait, once that Sun gets crankin’ again — ooooh boy, that Global Warming will really get going!


18 posted on 04/22/2009 11:52:48 AM PDT by mikrofon (Gore-bull Warning)
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To: ChicagahAl
Heck, I'll buy into Climate Change. In fact, I'd be more surprised if it DIDN'T change.

But, the message: "YOU! And only you! Can save the planet by buying new, eco-friendly lightbulbs....(this ad brought to you by the good folks at GE.)" is a load of bull.

Doesn't amount to a spit in the ocean.

19 posted on 04/22/2009 11:53:12 AM PDT by wbill
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To: TaraP

This is what politicized science does: the planet has been cooling for nine years in an almost perfectly synchronous correlation with reduced in solar activity - but that means nothing. Man-made contribution to greenhouse gases is 3%, but that means everything.


20 posted on 04/22/2009 11:53:17 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.)
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