Observations From the Back Row: 6-21-11

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Solar Physicist predicts Grand Solar Minimum will last until 2100
Dr. Cornelis de Jager is a renowned Netherlands solar physicist, past General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union, and author of several peer-reviewed studies examining the solar influence upon climate. In response to the recent press release of three US studies indicating the Sun is entering a period of exceptionally low activity, Dr. de Jager references his publications of 2010 and prior indicating that this Grand Solar Minimum will be similar to the Maunder Minimum which caused the Little Ice Age, and prediction that this "deep minimum" will last until approximately the year 2100:

"The new episode is a deep minimum. It will look similar to the Maunder Minimum, which lasted from 1620 to 1720...This new Grand Minimum will last until approximately 2100."

A lecture by Dr. de Jager at UCAR shows that solar activity during the 20th century was at the highest levels of the past 900 years:

My Take - Dr. James Marusek, a retired nuclear physicist and engineer has allowed be to republish much of his work on this issue. Please follow these article for more information on this subject.

The Sun is Undergoing a State Change
Solar “Grand Minima” Threat Analysis
The Mighty Ohio


The usual Green/Left disregard for human life - Too bad if Africans die providing Germans with their "organic" food
Children are dying in Africa - just so that German organic food shops can keep their store shelves well-stocked. This is what author Laura Koch writes in Der Spiegel Online in a story titled "How the Malaria Wonder-Weapon Drives Farmers Into Poverty". In the Spiegel report's introduction, the author writes:

"Malaria transmitted by mosquitoes kills hundreds of people in Uganda daily - that's why the government there uses the insecticide DDT. But the use of the pesticide has grave consequences for people living out in the countryside: Suppliers of organic foods are no longer able to sell their products, and now they are threatened by abject poverty."

These introductory words alone bring up 2 fundamental questions. Firstly: Is the planting of organic foods the only possibility that Ugandan farmers have in providing for their livelihoods? Secondly: Since hundreds of people can be saved from death by DDT daily, how many Ugandans are we willing to sacrifice in order to allow a few farmers to produce crops that meet the directives of some European and US-American organic food associations? Just one note on the side: Half of the malaria-caused deaths are small children.

My Take -You may wish to explore this E coli outbreak in Germany as a result in the use of “healthier” organic foods.

"Organic farms fell under suspicion in the investigation because they do not use chemical fertilisers and put crops at greater risk of contamination from bacteria in manure. The cost to European farming could reach €500m."

"The new strain of E coli causes disease by colonising the gut and producing a toxin called Shiga. Many patients experienced bloody diarrhoea and in the most serious cases the infection caused a life-threatening condition called haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS)."

Not only is ‘organic’ more expensive, but it does not deliver better nutrition, and it is potentially deadly….and this has happened in other areas of the world. Can this happen to traditional farm produce. Sure, but they didn’t go around making outrageous, unfounded claims against the “organics”. Now, with all the facts being in….any claims against the ‘organics’ aren’t unfounded. Why can’t we get that?

The Black Death: Longing For The Good Old Days
………….This nonsensical yearning for the Good Old Days of naturally bleak weather, famine, and the Black Plague has its roots in the near-religious myth that anything humans do to affect the natural course of Mother Earth is evil and wrong.

• Few will dispute that the naturally occurring Medieval Warm Period was good for the human condition and the biosphere.
• Few will dispute that the naturally occurring Little Ice Age was harmful to the human condition and the biosphere.

Yet when evidence suggests humans are contributing – in whatever small measure – to the Modern Warm Period that has rescued us from the depths of the oppressive Little Ice Age, not only Big Government liberals but many self-professed Small Government conservatives tell us we need to do everything possible to restore the climate to The Natural Condition of the oppressive Little Ice Age.


The Shame of the American Meteorological Society ……….
I am very disappointed at the downward path the AMS has been following for the last 10-15 years in its advocacy of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hypothesis. The society has officially taken a position many of us AMS members do not agree with. We believe that humans are having little or no significant influence on the global climate and that the many Global Circulation Climate Model (GCMs) results and the four IPCC reports do not realistically give accurate future projections. To take this position which so many of its members do not necessarily agree with shows that the AMS is following more of a political than a scientific agenda. ...

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