Mini-Ice Age prediction heats up Climate Change debate!

A new study has recently been published that has really heated up Climate Change arguments.

Valentina Zharkova, a professor of mathematics at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, used a new model of the sun’s solar cycle and its periodic change in solar radiation emissions to predict a “mini Ice Age” may begin shortly.

The earth is 15 years from a “mini ice-age” that will cause bitterly cold winters during which rivers such as the Thames freeze over, scientists have predicted. Solar researchers at the University of Northumbria have created a new model of the sun’s activity which they claim produces “unprecedentedly accurate predictions”. They said fluid movements within the sun, which are thought to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will converge in such a way that temperatures will fall dramatically in the 2030s. Solar activity will fall by 60 per cent as two waves of fluid “effectively cancel each other out”, according to Prof Valentina Zharkova.

Legal Insurrection covered this concept, termed “Maunder Minimums,” is a previous post related to global warming.

Needless to day, Zharkova’s prediction as met with the usual derision from “settled science” believers who prefer to blame mankind for all adverse weather.

Elite media instantly attacked the nature of where the information is reported, then cited studies that have been previously criticized by those of us skeptical of the current “climate change” hysteria:

UK tabloids, conservative media, and others are (mis)reporting that the Earth will enter a “mini ice age” in the 2030s. In fact, not only is the story wrong, the reverse is actually true.The Earth is headed toward an imminent speed-up in global warming, as many recent studies have made clear, like this June study by NOAA.

In fact, Legal Insurrection published a post that countering the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) report used in the above critique.

Naturally, the press went after Zharkova’s professional credentials, too!

…It’s always nice to see the public take an interest in science. But it’s problematic when that science is misrepresented, flawed or even worse, dishonest.According to a number of climate experts, Zharkova’s work is at least two of those three things.In fairness, Zharokova’s study didn’t directly predict a miniature ice age. Her work focuses on solar activity. She suggests the irregular heartbeat governing the sun’s electromagnetic activity is about to skip a few beats.More accurately, Zharkova says the magnetic waves that cause sunspots exist as two divergent — and competing — frequencies. These frequencies will soon cancel each other out, she says, leading to a reduction in radiation hurled towards Earth.Regardless, news stories tended to focus on the possibility of an upcoming ice age.At least part of the blame lies with a National Astronomy Meeting, held last week in Llandudno, Wales. The organization sent out the press release that helped shine the spotlight on Zharokova’s research — which has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.But if Zharokova wanted to distance herself from dubious climatic predictions, she hasn’t helped her cause. She recently went on record questioning the consensus of anthropogenic global warming. She believes the sun’s fluctuating output plays a greater role in influencing temperature than does the greenhouse gas effect.”I am not convinced with the arguments of the group promoting global warming of an anthropogenic nature,” Zharkova told The Washington Post.

While I am not rushing out to buy a parka, I am a firm believer that the Sun plays a much more significant role in global climate changes that humanity. Interestingly, one study that the elite media is ignoring actually supports the newest report. This information was published in 2013 and involves hard data obtained from ice core analysis.

According to Professor Lockwood [a leading scientist from Reading University] 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.

By 2030, we should know if the mini-Ice Age model has any merit, or if the dire warnings of an ice-free Arctic are true! But, today, one thing is 100% certain: The behavior of the press when confronted with any information that strays from its cherished narrative.

Tags: Climate Change, global warming

CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY