A few days ago I posted an article from a Canadian Scientist citing that we may be looking at an unexpected stretch of cold. The event is known as the Maunder Minimum and supposedly happens every couple of centuries and can last for up to a century. With all the conflicting data about the weather, it would not surprise me the least if everyone is plenty confused.

Part of the confusion comes to us via the White House. It is now known that Bush has decided that it is okay to censure and even edit climate reports. Another problem is that in mainstream and government funded scientific consortiums those who do not flow with the prevailing opinions are pretty much silenced and even cast out completely. It seems to be assumed that even when all evidence points to the contrary, the public will be willing to adopt the current opinion. Unfortunately, there is much evidence that the current standing has nothing much to do with reality.

The first issue with warming has been C2O2. The concentration of C2O2 has been increasing on the planet and has been officially blamed for warming. It was the authoritative stance that WE caused the warming. If you have studied the Earth Watch reports that I have posted you will see that for some reason the other planets were all reacting the same as earth even though the C2O2 was not. Unless they can find a logical explanation of how we are causing warming on other planets, too, the C2O2 version of warming stands to do nothing but allow politicians to siphon more of citizen’s money out of their pockets and continue to increase the wealth of the already quite well to do. Are we experiencing warming. Oh yeah. At least until this winter. Is it our fault. No. Many other obscene destructions are completely the fault of humans, but unless that microwave grid we have circling the earth now is cooking us like hot dogs, we aren’t the cause of warming.

So what is up with all of this cold at the beginning of 2008? Very simply put, the sun is not throwing us as much energy at the moment. Apparently the signal that sun cycle 24 was beginning early did not materialize. We may still be at the end of cycle 23. Wherever we are in this cycle, the sun is extremely calm at the moment. We are therefore experiencing cold - and plenty of it. How this will effect ice caps and glaciers that everyone was worried about should be evident.

As early as September of 2007 it was reported that ice caps were refreezing at a record pace after melting to their lowest point in one heck of a long time. (Of course, no one mentioned to us that 125,000 years ago we had no caps for awhile because this news would not be conducive to us thinking it’s our fault.) Now in 2008, I have been unable to locate current reports, but considering that Canada is having record cold right now, with some areas dropping to 72 below F, it seems to make sense that areas of the Arctic are still refreezing. Why the silence about what is going on up there? Could it be that the politically accepted “authoritative opinion” can’t figure out a way to graciously back out of their climate consensus?

As for the cold, how long it will last depends on how active the sun cycle becomes. Predictions are that this cycle is going to be an active one. Can we be sure? Not really, but scientists are working diligently to learn how exactly space weather and the sun effect the planet and as they learn, predictions will become more accurate.

The current cold might just pan out as one more disaster type event to add to the list. If humans relax and think that warming is over and we can just go back to our old waste creating means of living, they really need to think again. While it is true that many areas are now over massive drought, the extra water in recently desertificated areas will be bringing deep lying salts to the surface and rendering those areas permanently destroyed. Timely reforestation could have saved those areas, but we were too busy talking about what we should do to actually be doing it. We can hope that the water will bring back some areas from the brink, and we can work to do what we can for still salvageable areas so future warming won’t destroy more land.

We can also realize that the cold has also done much damage. China just lost millions of acres of forests in the recent blizzards they experienced. They, as well as many other countries, lost crops to the cold. Fuel issues during cold can also become catastrophic very easily as most people still depend on government and corporate controlled fuel for heat. We also have many species which migrated northward during major warming now in climates which they may have to flee again to survive - if they can actually get back out in time. Unfortunately, the cold hit a heck of a lot faster than the warming did.

Now that we have seen that warming does not preclude cold spells and that changes in climate are going to happen periodically no matter what, just as they always have, we may be able to focus on real issues that threaten us. The first of which is that in many areas desertification set in due to humans and livestock exceeding carrying capacities of the land. That is very much our own fault. We must turn our attention to making sure that we reach levels of humans and livestock that do not exceed carrying capacity. No - I am not saying kill people and livestock - but I am saying we need to quit reproducing humans and livestock at current levels. People scream to the heavens when they hear that, but when areas become populated to over carrying capacity levels, there doesn’t seem much room for logical argument about curbing population growth. Of course they can, and have been moving out of these areas, but pushing other areas to over capacity doesn’t seem to be much of an answer.

Cold is not going to preclude the predicted famine in any way either. The amount of crops just lost in the recent freeze is not one tad better than the amounts we were losing to heat. It is of extreme importance that the idea that a cold spell is going to save us is not propagated. If record cold continues, we may be facing a worse crisis than we could have expected from warming as major amounts of crops can be destroyed overnight with just one frost. If cold continues, fuel issues could become genocidal issues very rapidly. Reforestation would become a joke rapidly if people have to start cutting vegetation for fuel in cold crises.

At this point of time we can’t be certain if we are looking at continuing cold or whether this streak of record colds is just a temporary chill during a continuing trend of warming. The sun could activate just as rapidly as it calmed.

Cold or warm, it is important that people become self-sustaining and install renewable, environmentally friendly energy sources which they control themselves. Hydroponic gardens are the surest answer to hunger in any climate. Reducing pollutants that endanger the environment must remain a top issue on any country’s agenda. Above all, we must examine our reluctance to face the issue of carry capacity of our planet, rethink our positions on population growth, and work to achieve sustainable populations naturally. As said before - if we don’t do it, nature will, and nature isn’t known for humane methods of restructuring.