Cosmic rays cool Earth to counter warming
Wouldn't you know: Just when the Bush Administration decides to "DO SOMETHING!" about global warming, the stupid globe stops getting warmer. How lucky can Bush be?
Actually, Bush didn't do anything. What happened is, the sun forgot to start its sunspot cycle on time; solar magnetic field strength is down, allowing strong cosmic rays to get through, causing increased cloud cover, preventing global warming.
"Say what?" you ask. This is a new discovery for science, and the data come from an unusual source: the Danish National Space Center. If you look at its Web site (www.spacecenter.dk), you will find a discussion of "Cosmoclimatology." Danish scientists and some others (but few from the U.S.) have discovered an important linkage between cosmic rays and Earth's climate.
Over the past several billion years, so many of these cosmic rays have been produced by exploding stars that one or two zip through your brain every second or so. No wonder you forget things.
These cosmic rays are so energetic that they ionize atoms all the way through the atmosphere. Some of these ions start the formation of cloud condensation nuclei, which in due course form water droplets, which in turn produce cloud cover that reflects incoming sunlight back into space, cooling the Earth.
A strongly magnetic sun with many sunspots deflects many cosmic rays away from Earth, leading to fewer clouds and a warmer planet. Over the past century, the sun has been more active than at any time in the past 8,000 years or so. Sure enough, the Earth's temperature was warm, as when Greenland was first colonized by Norsemen a thousand years ago.
But the next sunspot cycle is late. It was supposed to start more than a year ago, but the notion among solar physicists now is that it likely won't start until 2009. NASA images show the sun looking as smooth as the proverbial baby's bottom. In fact, the sun has been essentially spotless for some years now.
Sure enough, the globe quit getting warmer. The temperature of the Earth since 1998 has been almost constant, even though carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continued to increase steadily. Over the past decade, no correlation of any sort exists between carbon dioxide increases and temperature.
In fact, the Earth may now be headed for noticeably cooler times. Sunspot cycles have a "supercycle" about 200 years long. That supercycle is now about due for lowered sunspot numbers, meaning lower solar activity. The last period of low solar activity ended about 1860, after the Earth had suffered through several centuries of cold weather commonly called the Little Ice Age; this cooling is what drove the Norsemen out of Greenland.
Apparently, the sun is now about due for some quiet time. In that case, the Earth will end up cooler. The current estimate is about 1.5 degrees Centigrade cooler, which is a substantial impact.
So all the hype and hoopla regarding warming due to man-made carbon dioxide ("Gorebull Warming," somebody called it) is pretty much snake oil, and should be disregarded (check out www.icecap.us/index.)
A decade or two ago, Earth was getting warmer and NASA reported a whole lot of sunspots. Now there are none, and Earth has stopped getting warmer. Go figure.
W.T. "Ted" Hinds
Gainesville
State should expand, add to reservoirs
The situation: Georgia is in the midst of an all-time record drought with corresponding low levels in reservoirs throughout the state. Further, an economic slowdown is now reaching a critical point with grading contractors going under, equipment suppliers without room for the repossessed, and their lenders taking another hit albeit this time on what were sound investments.
The small-business owner is bearing the greatest burden in these hard times. The state has a sizeable rainy-day fund, but is unable or unwilling to use it for drought or economic relief.
Proposal: Fully fund the restoration reservoir storage capacity throughout the state. Lakes fill up exponentially; at Lanier the 100 or so feet below the dead pool is less than half the volume of the next 35 feet, and little more than a third of the final 15 feet of storage. Clearing the natural and development source sediment exposed by the drought will restore the volume needed for the next drought.
Good citizens like the Boy Scouts are cleaning up the shorelines; smart governments will take the opportunity to clean out the dirt that has displaced the state's water storage capacity.
Every reservoir in Georgia needs to have its capacity restored, and where possible or practical, expanded. Funding proposals of 20 percent to expand and 40 percent for new reservoirs are counterintuitive. The pipe network and treatment plants are already tied into existing reservoirs. They, too, already have their watershed basins mapped and protected.
To get the most out of funds, they need to expand the existing facilities instead of paying the consultants for new analysis of possible future areas, even before the lawyers and landowners get a shot at the public funds available.
Offer spot contracts for 80 percent of the Georgia DOT rate to remove the sediment. Even at that rate, the firms lining up to do the engineering, excavation, transportation and testing will make the latest Wal-Mart job fair seem insignificant.
The disposition of this material would be to places that are not within 200 feet of a stream without sufficient erosion controls in place. First, offer it to farmers and land fills in need of daily cover. Then to individual property owners who would pay 20 cents a mile to have it delivered. Followed by commercial interests in need nonstructural fills, or if nothing else store it on government lands.
Request the president to direct the corps to immediately approve the shoreline dredging projects. The governor should direct the Georgia EPD to immediately grant the buffer waivers. Create public works teams of private engineers, governmental officials and contractors to identify areas to be cleared.
Pass the legislation now to get the funds available immediately. The time for study and meditation is passed.
We are now praying, each to our own entity we regard as our only hope, to bring an end to this drought. When that entity eventually delivers our liquid salvation, will our leaders have learned anything in our time of trial? Time will tell, but I would ask, as James would in 2:20, of our governor: "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"
Bill Finnick
Flowery Branch
In politics, distinguish between types of lies
Many of today's religious leaders pandered to their politically challenged audience to help elect politicians who could advance their hate-mongering tactics. While claiming to follow the teachings of Jesus, they desecrate the whole concept of his message.
The published Downing Street Memo and other well documented records present the evidence that George W. Bush plunged our nation into war by lying to Congress and the American people.
When President Bill Clinton lied about his involvement in a sexual indiscretion, numerous religious leaders declared America to be crumbling from within.
Apparently, there is a segment of the religious establishment that considers "thou shalt not commit adultery" more destructive to a nation than "thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not bear false witness."
Mary Farrow Smith
Eastanollee