Global warming - things may be about to cool down.

(orig. posted 10 Nov. 2006)

I read a really interesting article in New Scientist the other day.
It was about how sunspot activity seems to be closely related to
global climate & ice ages etc.
The interesting thing is that they are able to trace this relationship
holds for about the last 14000 years, but suddenly diverges
just in the last 30 years or so.
Seems to be proof that we really are warming the planet.

Another interesting thing is that they are able to predict sunspot activity
(it is cyclic) and they're predicting we are about to go into a 50 year
cycle of reduced solar activity. So, just as we are starting to warm
the planet up, the sun is about to cool it down a bit.

Good news - we may have a little more time to fix global warming.
Bad news - it may look like global warming has gone away / wasn't real
and then in 50 years it hits with a vengeance!