NEW THREAT TO HUMANITY - GLOBAL COOLING?!

Anyone who knows me knows very well my stance on global warming. Basically, from a meteolorogist's standpoint, I don't believe man-made global warming is occurring. Sure, we humans have an impact on the environment, but there are other particles and elements in the atmosphere that affect the environment far more than us mere humans. Not to get off topic, but there is a reason they changed the buzz word from "Global Warming" to "Climate Change". The term climate change is irrefutable. The climate is always changing...global warming, however...there are plenty of indications that are showing that that isn't occurring at all.

This brings me to the subject of this post: I recently heard of the newest "threat to humanity", which is global cooling as a result of the coming grand solar minimum. While I know very well the sun has periods of minimum and maximum activity, I had never really heard anything about the effects of the solar minimums. I knew sunspots are well known to cause satellite interference, and CMEs can occasionally produce a nice Aurora Borealis in the norther latitudes, but I had never heard anything about how that affects our daily life.

To derail any speculation that a minimum might NOT be on the way, let's just say these boys at NASA know what they are talking about in the following article: https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/solar-minimum-is-coming

While intense activity such as sunspots and solar flares subside during solar minimum, that doesn’t mean the sun becomes dull. Solar activity simply changes form.

For instance, says Pesnell, “during solar minimum we can see the development of long-lived coronal holes.”

Pesnell says “We see these holes throughout the solar cycle, but during solar minimum, they can last for a long time - six months or more.” Streams of solar wind flowing from coronal holes can cause space weather effects near Earth when they hit Earth’s magnetic field. These effects can include temporary disturbances of the Earth’s magnetosphere, called geomagnetic storms, auroras, and disruptions to communications and navigation systems.

Ok, so with NASA on board, with relative certainty, we can assume that we are entering a time of a solar minimum. If you project solar cycles, it matches up pretty well with the whole 11 year minimum thing.

That being said, how is this going to be the new threat to humanity!?! It seems like a lot of governments wanted us to jump up and react to the global warming thing...how are we supposed to react to the very opposite? What would global cooling even mean?

Heading on over to YouTube, a channel named Adapt 2030 has some interesting theories on how this new solar minimum will affect life here on Earth:

Basically, he believes the next cycle solar minimum will impact us in some of the following ways:

• Crop yields will be drastically reduced
• Less solar irradiance leading to crop damage from lack of UV light, increasing mold damage and blight
• Colder winters and increasing snow falls
• Increased earthquake/volcanic activity (due to increasing cosmic rays hitting the Earth's surface)
• Crop failure on a massive scale for locations greater than 45 degrees latitude
• Increased cloud development and more intense storms (hurricanes/hail storms) because of less shear in the atmosphere

So far, from what I have heard, the general basis behind this theory sounds pretty solid, scientifically speaking. This is why I want to bring this up. How will you prepare? Greenhouses are one answer, but I would make sure you start stocking fire wood and have a solid wood stove ready to use.

Look, I can't predict the future [as much as I want to believe I can]. Will this happen, I have no idea. But I can say that everything I am reading and listening to on this subject seem to be lining up well with current events:

• Record sea ice
• Early snow falls in the PNW
• Stronger hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, Maria)

It seems to me that stocking up some more food staples, creating some infrastructure to support (nearly) year round farming, and getting a home heating plan in place, all makes good sense to me. Start making some observations yourself and pose some questions regarding what you have been led to believe. And above all, don't take my word for it. Do some research and come to your own conclusions.

Icy Earth image credit goes to: blogs.nature.com