Dry Ice Albany Ny

Maunder Minimum vs. global warming « Jodeane's Opinions about the ...

What side of the debate are you on, now that scientists are suspecting the Maunder Minimum is coming?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately that sunspots on the sun have decreased dramatically, and that’s going to put a serious dent in climate here on our li’l old earth.  In fact, scientists are predicting a little ice age is gaining on us — all because of the Maunder Minimum.

According to studies by the American Astronomical Society hanging out in Las Cruces, N.M., our usually reliable sun is slipping into a sort of hibernation, the likes of which haven’t been seen in centuries.  This is the Maunder Minimum, which is the name used for the period from about 1645 to 1715 or so when sunspots almost disappeared from the surface of the sun.

It was named for Edward Maunder, who, among other scientists in the 1800s, studied how sunspot latitudes changed with time, and brought in lower-than-average global temperatures.  In fact, during the 17th and early 18th centuries, even into the 19th century, it was  noted only 50 sunspots were observed, as compared to the 40,000 to 50,000 that astronomers have seen the past several decades, more typical in modern times.

This plays havoc with all kinds of systems on our planet, and yes, politics gets caught up in it, too.  During the 1600s and 1700s civilization was wracked with some pretty serious problems because the earth was, simply put, too darn cold. Europe and North America in particular went into deep freeze; glaciers crept across valley farmlands; sea ice slipped down from the Arctic much farther south than usual and the canals in the Netherlands froze up.

There is on record that New England, the easternmost Canadian provinces and Western Europe were gripped by a persistent “dry fog” in the spring and summer of those years.  Also on June 6, 1816, snow fell in Albany, N.Y., and in Maine. A foot of snow fell in Quebec. Lake and river ice were seen in August as far south as Pennsylvania.  In Taiwan, a tropical country, snow and frost coated the landscape.

Of course, when something like a mini Ice Age takes over the planet, that means crops fail, people starve, prices for food skyrocket, food riots are commonplace, and people start dying in droves.  This was the same period when the potato blight hit the Irish people and even though many Irish immigrated to America during this time, still more than 100,000 Irish perished from starvation and disease.

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