A New Little Ice Age Is Called Off By FOCUS Magazine

The last two years of minimal solar activity did not prevent the earth from warming, and thus shows that the theory that the recent abnormally low solar activity could lead to a little ice age is false, so writes German FOCUS magazine.

Online FOCUS magazine  here reports on how solar activity has awoken, and thus the prospects of a new little ice age befalling the planet are now excluded.According to FOCUS, the sun has been showing some “hefty” activity over the last weeks. The series of violent eruptions had started already back in early spring, and increased in frequency over the summer.

FOCUS here is hyping the current solar activity, making it sound like the sun is really firing up. Solar Cycle 24 indeed has started, but is still sputtering badly, see the following graphic:

Not only is solar cycle 24 way behind schedule, and that scientists have had to postpone its projected start a number of times, solar cycle 24 is still well behind even the latest updated projection, and it may have a hard time reaching 75 sunspots when it peaks. Yet, FOCUS writes:

The sun is proving, in the most impressive way, that its period of minimum activity is now over and is now powering ahead toward its maximum of its new cycle, which will be in 2013.

And:

The increasing activity not only settles the dispute of a new little ice age for good, But in interaction with the El Niño, which dominated in the Pacific until summer, it could also make 2010 the warmest year since records have been kept.

So FOCUS is claiming that the recent low solar activity couldn’t stop the hot 2010.  And because solar cycle  24 is is getting active, FOCUS now sees nothing getting in the way of more warming. Rising temperatures despite 2 years of little solar activity proves the sun is not the driver. Worries of a little  ice age were for nothing. So get back to worrying about global warming!

FOCUS makes this earth-shattering conclusion based on just a couple of years of observation. This kind of junk science is not unusual in the German media.

In the report FOCUS emphasizes how some scientists were concerned about the possibility of a new little ice age beginning, like during the Maunder and Dalton minimums. FOCUS writes:

Due to the recent reduced radiation by the sun, cooling of the planet was expected. Some scientists even prophesied a little ice age.

FOCUS explains how some solar scientists believe  solar activity effected global temperature in the past.

The cause of the devastating cold periods was the sun. During the entire Little Ice Age, it showed only very minimal activity, which was evidenced by the very small number of sunspots. In one 30-year phase of the Maunder-Minimum, only 50 spots showed up  – normal would be thousands.

FOCUS then dismisses the theory applies today, saying  the theory of the recent solar minimum causing cool temperatures has failed:

Some climate sceptics even announced a cooling of about 0,2°C, but that was a false conclusion, as 2009 was the 5th warmest year since temperature recording began. The months of January to July, 2010 were the warmest such period ever – even though the sun was still close to its low period of activity.

So even with 2 or three years of low solar activity, it still got hot, and so the theory is dead, FOCUS  tells its readers. FOCUS avoids mentioning the impact of the 2009/2010 El Nino. Finally, FOCUS concludes:

Nobody has to worry about another little ice age occurring. Even if the sun were to go into a protracted minimum, the rise in temperatutres brought on by GHG would compensate for it.

I wonder what FOCUS will write if Joe Bastardi’s forecast for the next few years pans out.

8 responses to “A New Little Ice Age Is Called Off By FOCUS Magazine”

  1. Edward.

    Cor blimey, isn’t science so wonderfully simple, Glory be!

    It is reckoned that ‘modest cooling of 1 deg’ C caused the little ice age (modest but a big drop[to us]- lets hope we do not experience that!), not much considering the background warming of the C20th is about +/- .5 – 0.7 if the temperature record can be given absolute credence, so not much to drop back though ….is it?

    Focus discount a warm PDO (in the recent years) – and the real fact that it is in La Nina phase now, undoubtedly the sun is quiescent but a Dalton minimum – no, not yet by a long, long way.

    The whole premise of the article is predicated on as yet unfounded dubious correlation between solar activity and on very doubtful GISS or NOAA hyped T figures…………..it sounds as if the alarmists are up to their old tricks to me.

    Bastardi’s evidence consists of low solar activity coupled with the PDO going into a cooling phase (big one), Aerosols (SO2 and dust) in the upper atmosphere from recent volcanic activities in Kamchatka, Alaska, and most recently in Iceland and the Philippines and the AMO moving into cold phase – all these combined make a cold period almost inevitable.

    I think Joe (Bastardi) is correct.

    I think Focus are full of ..it.

  2. R. de Haan

    El Ninjo and blocking patterns have caused heat waves, cold waves, extreme rains and an unprecedented drop in temperatures at the SH this summer.

    The Focus article belongs in the same trash bin as all the other warmist non science about glaciers melt, melting icecaps, sea level rise, droughts, and the over 800 AGW related phenomena which are total BS as well.
    http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

  3. DirkH

    It’s cold outside.
    Today, it doesn’t look like CO2 will keep me warm.
    —————————————
    Reply: It’s because the sun is almost spotless today. Pray for more spots. -PG

  4. Quixote

    Expect more irrational and unsubstantiated claims by groups with an alliance to the U.N.

    Moon and his “boys” are desperately trying to “rev up” their lost message on fake Global Warming again so they can have one last “kick at the Global Governance Can”……..

    Sorry but your messages are falling on deaf ears because your insidious plans for World domination have been “EXPOSED!”

  5. AFPhys

    This article by FOCUS is very premature.

    There appears to be on the order of a five year delay between the activity of Sol and the ramifications on Earth’s temperature, as I have been writing for 2-3 years. That being the case, temperature changes resulting from Sol’s inactivity won’t even start to become apparent until around 2013-14, and won’t be clear for several years after that.

  6. Edward.

    “won’t even start to become apparent until around 2013-14, and won’t be clear for several years after that.”

    Now that is an interesting comment and a tad worrying.

    There is, as such (Focus comment) a whole industry devoted to scare mongering and hype, predicated upon, presenting AGW as so dependent on supposed minuscule changes and anomalies, that portend to imminent disaster.
    It is so daft.

    Climate is a very long term combination of processes (some dimly understood) and not at all given to fitting in with man’s puny time scales.

  7. Wrangler Wayne

    Well, to make a prediction based on such a narrow upturn in sunspot activity is not very smart. Sounds rather foolish. If one is going to use sunspots for a climate prediction, then one must look at the entire sunspot phenomena: we are now in a repeat Dalton like solar minimum, officially called the Landsheidt Minimum. There is a very good chance that around 2030 we will also witness
    a Maunder minimum. The historical records strongly predict this. As for the
    global climate warming models involving CO2, it just doesn’t seem to pan out.

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