Stalking Venus

Sorry to be the one to tell you this folks, but it looks like we’re all doomed. Again.

There are a couple of different reports in Australian newspapers that despite all the evidence pointing at global warming, we are in fact, heading into a new ice age.

Phil Chapman, geophysicist, astronautical engineer, and the first Australian to become a NASA astronaut, reports in The Australian that “despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide… the global temperature is falling precipitously.”

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is located in deep space, in such a way that it hangs between the gravitational pull of the Earth and the sun. Chapman goes on to say that the SOHO is showing disturbing signs that there isn’t going to be a new solar sunspot cycle - something that was due to start in March last year, but just hasn’t materialised.

“The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.

It didn’t happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.

The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth’s climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.”

So, which is better for you: Margarine, or butter? Coffee or tea? Ice age or hot house? The jury’s still out.

Sent in by Tania.

[via news.com.au, The Australian, SOHO]