Global temperature could drop 1.5 degrees C (3 degrees F) by 2020

British lepidopterists have been claiming the ranges of 
some UK butterflies have been expanding further northward 
in recent years. 

Now a British news organization re****ts why we may
be entering a period of Global cooling:

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3223603.ece
Dec. 5, 2007

Excerpts:

"Our Sun has suddenly gone exceptionally quiet.
Months have passed with no spots visible on its disc."

"Between 1645 and 1715 sunspots were rare. It was also
a time when the Earth's northern hemisphere chilled dramatically."

"The past decade has been warmer than previous ones. It
is the result of a rapid increase in global temperature between
1978 and 1998. Since then average temperatures have held at
a high, though steady, level. Many computer climate projections
suggest that the global temperatures will start to rise again in a
few years. But those projections do not take into account the
change in the Sun's behaviour. The tardiness of cycle 24
indicates that we might be entering a period of low solar
activity that may counteract man-made greenhouse temperature
increases. Some members of the Russian Academy of Sciences
say we may be at the start of a period like that seen between
1790 and 1820, a minor decline in solar activity called the Dalton
Minimum. They estimate that the Sun's reduced activity may
cause a global temperature drop of 1.5C by 2020. This is larger
than most sensible predictions of man-made global warming
over this period."

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

 
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