For the first time in almost a century, an entire month has passed without a single sunspot being visible on the sun’s surface. The event is significant because sunspots are caused by solar magnetic activity, and solar magnetic activity is increasingly believed by climatologists to be one of the primary factors influencing the earth’s climate. It is not uncommon to see 100 or more sunspots in a single month, but during the first seven months of 2008, the sun averaged only three spots, followed by the total disappearance of spots last month.

The disappearance of sunspots has caught most astronomers by surprise and defied almost all predictions, though one observatory seems to have gotten it right. In 2005, a pair of astronomers from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson wrote a paper predicting that within 10 years, sunspots would disappear entirely. But their peers laughed at the two astronomers, and Science refused to publish their paper on the grounds that it was too controversial. In the end, “consensus” stifled scientific debate, and the NSO astronomers were ignored.

The scientific community is paying attention now, however. Some climate scientists believe that the sun’s “dynamo” (the process that creates its magnetic field) might be idling. As the sun’s dynamo slows and sunspot activity decreases, the sun’s magnetosphere is reduced, affecting cloud formation and climate modulation on earth. A long absence of sunspots has happened three times in the past 1,000 years: the Dalton, Maunder and Sporer Minimums. The Maunder Minimum coincided with the 400-year Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America endured bitterly cold winters that devastated agriculture.

If we are indeed entering another solar minimum on the scale of the Maunder Minimum, we can expect severe global cooling to follow, stressing both the agriculture and energy industries. The practice of harvesting corn for use as fuel ethanol will likely become a distant memory, and the United States’ short-sighted energy policies could mean there won’t be enough heating oil, natural gas and electricity to go around in the severest of winters. We hope it won’t come to that, but if it does, at least Al Gore will be where he belongs: out in the cold.

From The Patriot Post.

Some excerpts:

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.

. . .

You may have noticed that something has been left off the doomsday list, lately. Although the preachers of environmentalism have been yelling about population for fifty years, over the last decade world population seems to be taking an unexpected turn. Fertility rates are falling almost everywhere…. There are some who think that world population will peak in 2050 and then start to decline. There are some who predict we will have fewer people in 2100 than we do today. Is this a reason to rejoice, to say halleluiah? Certainly not. Without a pause, we now hear about the coming crisis of world economy from a shrinking population. We hear about the impending crisis of an aging population. Nobody anywhere will say that the core fears expressed for most of my life have turned out not to be true. As we have moved into the future, these doomsday visions vanished, like a mirage in the desert. They were never there—though they still appear, in the future. As mirages do.

. . .

So I can tell you some facts. I know you haven't read any of what I am about to tell you in the newspaper, because newspapers literally don't report them. I can tell you that DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn't carcinogenic and banned it anyway. I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn't give a damn.

. . .

Because in the end, science offers us the only way out of politics. And if we allow science to become politicized, then we are lost. We will enter the Internet version of the dark ages, an era of shifting fears and wild prejudices, transmitted to people who don't know any better. That's not a good future for the human race. That's our past. So it's time to abandon the religion of environmentalism, and return to the science of environmentalism, and base our public policy decisions firmly on that.

Read the whole thing:

MichaelCrichton.com | Environmentalism as Religion

Singer Sheryl Crow was irritated when Karl Rove told her to keep her hands off him. But apparently, Rove has access to up-to-the minute intelligence. From Crow's blog:

I propose a limitation be put on how many sqares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting.  Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit,  except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.

I wouldn't want her touching me, either. Eww.

I believed Algore, and turned off the gas, since all we use it for is heat. Fortunately, all we have to do is turn on all the lights for a few hours, and the house warms right up.

Average morning low for NE Texas is 49 degrees on April 8. At 7AM today, it was 31 degrees.

First, how about the government of Belgium’s French-speaking region of Wallonia, which has approved a tax on barbecuing, because of the CO2 (carbon dioxide) emitted. The tax is 20 Euros per grilling session, and it will be enforced by heat-sensor equipped helicopters. Let's review; the grill puts out 50-100 grams of CO2; a little Googling reveals the chopper probably costs 2500 Euros per hour, and produces 15 kilograms of CO2 in that hour — 150,000 times as much CO2 as the grill, according to the calculator in my noggin.

Then, our illustrious Supreme Court decided that the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate greenhouse gases, including CO2 — you know, that stuff you exhale. That means we're just a Democrat-President-and-Congress away from your freedom of speech being curtailed, people — to save the environment!

Finally, the Tribune of San Luis Obispo reports:

A yearlong study has concluded that dust pollution is a serious problem on the Nipomo Mesa.

The study by the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District found that persistent winds blowing off the ocean from the northwest are picking up fine sand particles and carrying them onto the Mesa.

The result is that the Mesa regularly exceeds state and federal air pollution standards for coarse and fine particulate matter, said Larry Allen, county air pollution control officer. A state standard for coarse particulates was exceeded on a quarter of the days sampled….

In addition to sand particles blowing onto the Mesa from the beach, dirt roads on the Mesa also contributed to the problem.

…which means these Brainiacs took a year to figure out that sand and dirt are polluting the wilderness!

Through interviews with scientists and experts, this film explains the origins of global warming alarmism, debunks claims of man-made global climate change, and exposes the motivations of organizations, scientists and activists sounding the alarm. It also explains why it’s been extremely difficult, if not downright dangerous, for climate scientists to question global warming orthodoxy publicly.

According to the film, global warming alarmism has its roots in the 1970s when the 1940-1970 global temperature decline caused fears of global cooling and an impending ice age.

UK Documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle – Google Video

I've been hearing about carbon neutrality for a while, but haven't paid much attention to it, usually because I heard it mentioned in conjunction with Al Gore, who, frankly, could get me to look for a new favorite cigar just by endorsing my present favorite. (Wish I was getting paid by the comma!)  Intellectual honesty eventually prompted me to look it up, and it turns out I've been working toward carbon neutrality for years, especially if motive isn't considered.

I have no way of knowing how many trees my father and I planted over the years, but mostly because they are beautiful. Some even bore fruit – apples, pears, figs, pecans… but since it takes a lot of trees to make a noticeable difference in the carbon monoxide/oxygen balance, we ignored the fact that each tree does help a little.

We're renting, but when we do build our own house, we plan to make it as easy to heat and cool as possible. We also plan on solar cells for supplemental electricity, and and a ground source heat pump for heating/air conditioning, as well as at least one windmill for additional power and maybe even water. Our reasons are primarily economy and self-sufficiency — we sat through days of no power and no heat but that from the fireplace in the aftermath of an ice storm a few years ago, and we have no intention of being that vulnerable again.

I don't feel the need to look up how much "credit" we get for each tree planted, or each alternative power source we employ, but it's nice to be reminded that even a little bit does make a difference. 

The folks at Greenpeace were preparing to get their panties in a wad over President Bush's visit to Pennsylvania to promote, when they accidentally released a rough draft containing the following paragraph:

In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE].

You can't make this stuff up, folks!

Well, actually you can, but you don't have to.

Hat tip: Washington Post and IMAO 

"Al Gore: Next Movie May Have Nude Scene"–headline, NewsMax.com, June 10

For the hard-core American environmentalists – you know who you are:

• Who are America's enemies today?
• Do these groups and nations have a good track record on environmental issues? (hint: merely signing the Kyoto Protocol doesn't count)
• Is it possible these groups and nations could – by force or economic means – seriously hinder the ability of the US to acquire oil from other countries?
• If the US is not willing to resort to force to acquire sufficient oil, could the US become sufficiently crippled to the point where our enemies are able to defeat us?
• If our enemies have control of our resources, will they be more or less likely than the US to put environmental concerns ahead of exploiting those resources?
• If our enemies have control of our resources, will they be more or less likely than the US to allow you the freedom of speech to protest that exploitation?
• Don't you think you should sit down and shut up so you don't look so stupid?

Who would have thought so many "issue" sites, environment sites and, yes, government sites, could be hosting so much utter garbage on a topic subject to such intense scrutiny? Who could have imagined having to spend several hours wading through searches to find a few simple graphics correctly expressing the greenhouse effect? Who knew that so many blowhards are out there pontificating from complete ignorance? 

More at JunkScience.com. 

Discovered by accident, DDT became one of the greatest public health tools of the 20th century.

Overuse harmed its efficacy — and made it politically unpopular.

Learn more at JunkScience.com!