According to three new studies announced today at the American Astronomical Society, sunspot activity may be declining on the sun to the point that there could be another period of essentially no sunspots like the one that took place from 1645 to 1715. The reports indicate that magnetic field activity on the sun which causes most of the sunspots has weakened to the point where it will not be able to overcome the other forces at work on the surface of the sun so as to form sunspots. Those presenting the reports said that a so-called "minimum" or period with little sunspot activity would have big implications for man's activity on Earth (like communications and other satellite functions). It would also have a major impact on Earth's climate.
I am waiting now for the news story where Al Gore announces that the decline in sunspot activity is due to something man is doing on Earth.
Seriously, if the really is to be a sunspot minimum, we should see a cooling here on Earth which will be much stronger than any warming due to greenhouse gases from man made sources. This is too important a matter to be left to the politicians or the scientists who are "political". There ought to be a federaly funded study undertaken to determine, to the extent possile, the impact that a sunspot minimum would have on the Earth.
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