Please, don’t start with the Mayan Apocalypse predictions… However, it is undeniable that major changes are taking place in our environment, and not all of them are our fault. The sun is entering a “quiet” stage, which is a phase during which there are less solar eruptions, which results in a slightly dimmer sun. This can be measured by the quantity of sunspots, which are indicators of solar eruptions. In the 1700’s, a quiet phase of the sun coincided with the Little Ice Age from 1420-1570. However, though this change in the sun’s activity and the change in earth’s temperature coincide, one is not necessarily the result of the other.
Nigel Weiss, from the University of Cambridge, remarks in New Scientist: “It [The change in temperature] might be discernible, but it would be a blip rather than a major change,” he says. “It is nothing [compared] with the global warming that is now being produced through pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.” During the past century, global temperatures have risen .06 degrees celcius, and it is predicted that this solar event would lower temperatures .01 degrees Celsius.
One group that this change in the sun’s activity could effect are astronauts. Once they left the earth’s magnetic field, the less active sun would not protect them as well from cosmic rays which could lead to cancer and infertility.
Scientists are generally agreed that the sun does undergo less and more active periods, each lasting about a hundred years, and that this leads to some changes in our environment. The contested point is how exactly the sun and it’s “moods” will affect us. Read these two easy-to-understand New Scientist articles below if you are interested in reading two different view points on the subject (One suggesting this change is dangerous for us, the other hopeful that it could offset global warming at least temporarily.) Also, read the Maui News article by Harry Eagar.
By: Sierra Brown
