The other Global warming

Here's one that I think is worthy of some thought. I am no great believer in global warming being caused exclusively by man, or even predominantly by man, in fact I'm not sure man has much to do with global warming at all.

Geologic history tells us that the planet has been warmer and colder than it has at present. It tells us that the composition of the atmosphere has changed and evolved.

But the fact that Mars is also undergoing something of a global warming cycle suggests that either the two rovers are polluting Mars atmosphere something rotten, or there is an outside source warming up both here and Mars.

Could it be that the Sun has it’s own internal weather patterns? That it is not just an 11 year cycle we have to watch out for but maybe a 500 hundred year cycle and a 50,000 year cycle, and who knows what other cycles of energy output. Maybe a chunk of carbon gets stuck in its craw and it takes a few thousand years to cough it up?

Shock, Horror! Stop the Presses

April 2006

I wrote the above in December '05. I had been thinking about it for quite a time, but now people with a lot more brains, and money, and scientific dodads have gone and made me look smart. They have shown that the Sun's output has increased since the 1980's. The initial pick up was hidden by industrial polution, and a prior period of reduction in output by the Sun.

This just all goes to show that we haven't a clue about the Sun's former history. Nor do we have much clue as to it's future activity. Heck, all our head scratching about the ice ages, may be as simple as every once in a while the Sun chokes on a lump of carbon and it's output declines for a few thousand years. We would have no evidence to that reduction in output with any of the means we have at our disposal today. This means we can't predict the cycles the Sun may have (other than the famed 11 year cha-cha), nor when they may act. It's good to see we have something we haven't a clue about, nor are we likely to get a clue any time soon.