Get your snowboards waxed… the next ice age may be here soon!

I have been talking about how quiet sunspot cycle 24 has been, and how it’s possible that may foretell a cooler period in the Earth’s climate for the next set of years. I have also pointed out that I am a computer engineer, and come by these ideas based on personal study and application of new software techniques to assemble trends from huge quantities of information. That means take what I say with a grain of salt.

Now we get word from the excellent Watts Up With That site, stating that some of the real atmospheric scientists are starting to discuss the possibility of a much cooler world in a few years:

Four scientists, four scenarios, four more or less similar conclusions without actually saying it outright — the global warming trend is done, and a cooling trend is about to kick in. The implication: Future energy price response is likely to be significant.

Late last month, some leading climatologists and meteorologists met in New York at the Energy Business Watch Climate and Hurricane Forum. The theme of the forum strongly suggested that a period of global cooling is about emerge, though possible concerns for a political backlash kept it from being spelled out.

Words like “highly possible,” “likely” or “reasonably convincing” about what may soon occur were used frequently. Then there were other words like “mass pattern shift” and “wholesale change in anomalies” and “changes in global circulation.”

Noted presenters, such as William Gray, Harry van Loon, Rol Madden and Dave Melita, signaled in the strongest terms that huge climate changes are afoot. Each weather guru, from a different angle, suggested that global warming is part of a cycle that is nearing an end. All agreed the earth is in a warm cycle right now, and has been for a while, but that is about to change significantly.

The take away is that there are multiple atmospheric and solar factors pointing towards cooler temperatures for some period of time starting around the end of the decade. This could spell some serious trouble for scientists and weather networks who have staked their reputation on human boosted global warming.

In addition this interesting tidbit I stumbled across earlier today.. (Hey, I gave blood - I am allowed to be a bit stumbly!)

This is from NASA and is a long range forecast for sunspot cycle 25. Now these same goofs have been completely wrong on cycle 24 (the current cycle) with it clocking in well below their predictions. These graphs keep getting revised to push the cycle 24 bulge further right as the sun stays surprisingly quiet.

But if there is any accuracy in this, we could be looking at a marked decrease in solar energy reaching the earth for the next decade or two. For those of you wondering, that solar energy is the primary force that drives everything on earth, and is the only real mechanism to warm and heat the planet.

This will be interesting to monitor, but if you love snow sports (like I do) we may be headed into a golden age.