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Climate Change in the news

From Foreign Policy:

Paradise Lost In Mongolia's Arkhangai province, the Tsamba family lives on the edge, struggling through harsh winters alongside their herd of sheep. Severe winter conditions, known as dzud, have been responsible for the deaths of half the family's once 2,000-strong herd over the past three winters. Recently, in search of warmer pastures, the Tsambas moved from Bulgan province in the north to this region near a central Mongolian village called Ulziit.

In the photo above, 29-year-old Erdene Tuya hauls a sheep lost to the dzud to a small burial ground close to their yurt (gher) in March.

Emphasis mine. 1998 was the warmest year in the last hundred years -- temps held steady for a few years and now, they have been declining. Now things are starting to get spooky -- the sun's output is at an historical low period (Maunder minimum being the last time this happened) and there is a distinct possibility that it will continue for a while. From Anthony Watts:

BREAKING � major AAS solar announcement: Sun�s Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity
The American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin has just made a major announcement on the state of the sun. Sunspots may be on the way out and an extended solar minimum may be on the horizon.

From Space.com reporting from the conference:

Some unusual solar readings, including fading sunspots and weakening magnetic activity near the poles, could be indications that our sun is preparing to be less active in the coming years.

The results of three separate studies seem to show that even as the current sunspot cycle swells toward the solar maximum, the sun could be heading into a more-dormant period, with activity during the next 11-year sunspot cycle greatly reduced or even eliminated.

The results of the new studies were announced today (June 14) at the annual meeting of the solar physics division of the American Astronomical Society, which is being held this week at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

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Currently, the sun is in the midst of the period designated as Cycle 24 and is ramping up toward the cycle�s period of maximum activity. However, the recent findings indicate that the activity in the next 11-year solar cycle, Cycle 25, could be greatly reduced. In fact, some scientists are questioning whether this drop in activity could lead to a second Maunder Minimum, which was a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 when the sun showed virtually no sunspots.

Lots more at Anthony's website. This could be a gamechanger re: food, heating, etc... We have just under five cords of wood stockpiled and I am thinking about getting another couple just to have for the next few years. Posted by DaveH at June 14, 2011 1:17 PM