My Goodness, Can This Be Right?

I know we are having a very cold winter, and, normally, I would not cite that fact as evidence of anything related to global warming. That would put me in the same category as the alarmists who think that a few hurricanes means the end of the world and the propagandists who are endlessly pointing out occurrences they think are signs of man-made global warming.

On the other hand, perhaps the next two articles DO have some significance – as well as the opinion expressed below by a world renowned scientist in the third article cited. Why am I not surprised?

Recent cold snap helping Arctic sea ice, scientists find
CBC News February 15, 2008 (Excerpt)

There's an upside to the extreme cold temperatures northern Canadians have endured in the last few weeks: scientists say it's been helping winter sea ice grow across the Arctic, where the ice shrank to record-low levels last year.

Temperatures have stayed well in the -30s C and -40s C range since late January throughout the North, with the mercury dipping past -50 C in some areas.

Satellite images are showing that the cold spell is helping the sea ice expand in coverage by about 2 million square kilometres, compared to the average winter coverage in the previous three years.

"It's nice to know that the ice is recovering," Josefino Comiso, a senior research scientist with the Cryospheric Sciences Branch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, told CBC News on Thursday.

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Deep freeze in western Greenland
Article published Feb 13, 2008, Marshall.org By Mariia Simonsen (Excerpt)

"The ice between Canada and southwestern Greenland has reached its highest level in 15 years.

Minus 30 degrees Celsius. That's how cold it's been in large parts of western Greenland where the population has been bundling up in hats and scarves. At the same time, Denmark's Meteorological Institute states that the ice between Canada and southwest Greenland right now has reached its greatest extent in 15 years."

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Baliunas Says Global Warming Related To Sun

In her lecture series, "Warming Up to the Truth: The Real Story About Climate Change," astrophysicist Dr. Sallie Baliunas shared her findings Tuesday at the University of Texas at Tyler R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center.

Dr. Baliunas' work with fellow Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Willie Soon suggests global warming is more directly related to solar variability than to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, an alternative view to what's been widely publicized in the mainstream media."Some people argue solar influence is large; some argue it is small. I'm somewhere in the middle," she said during a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Her research goes back to time periods when the amount of carbon emission was small enough that it wasn't a major player. "If you go back far enough you eliminate some of your variables," she said. "I've always been interested with the changes of the sun and how they impact the earth. I decided to look at a narrower time scale this time. "Baliunas asserts that increases and decreases in solar output led to historically warmer and cooler periods.

Baliunas said concerns for world energy poverty should be more significant than worrying about something 100 years from now. "I'm all for saving energy resources and eradicating energy poverty around the world," she said. "One can be concerned by the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and come to it from the philosophical idea of caution. We just don't want to take the chance; still we can take a view of precaution.

"She also said civilizations have always looked for the cause of climate changes. In 16th and 17th century Europe, thousands were executed for what was called "weather cooking," where religious and political institutions blamed witches - mostly women - for poor growing periods or storms.

Dr. Baliunas received her M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. (1980) degrees in Astrophysics from Harvard University. She serves as senior scientist at the George C. Marshall Institute in Washington, D.C., and chairs the Institute's Science Advisory Board.Her talk was part of the university's Distinguished Lecture Series.

Sallie Baliunas is an astrophysicist formerly affiliated with the Mount Wilson Institute. Her awards include the Newton Lacey Pierce Prize by the American Astronomical Society, the Petr Beckman Award for Scientific Freedom and the Bok Prize from Harvard University. In 1991 Discover magazine profiled her as one of America's outstanding women scientists.