Ice Age?

I’m pessimistic enough to believe that our carbon based energy production will overheat our planet. I’m also pessimistic enough to wonder if the planet will heat up on it’s own, somehow, no matter what we do.

Imagine my excitement when I heard that NASA had issued a report this year (2020), predicting an ice age in the near future.

So, I searched it! So disappointing. A NASA blog dated February 13, 2020, headlines, “There is no impending mini ice age.”

They published a graft which has two lines – one represents the Earth’s temperature, the other represents the solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface. The two lines run parallel to each other, until about 1960. Since then, the Earth’s temperature has risen in a straight line, climbing at a 45 degree angle, while the sun’s energy level has remained about the same. It isn’t the sun’s energy that is causing the rising temperatures. NASA blames it on our release of greenhouse gases.

There was, indeed, a Grand Solar Minimum which coincided with the recent mini ice age, from about 1650 to about 1715. But, NASA says that nowadays, the warming caused by greenhouse gases is six times greater than the cooling that a Grand Solar Minimum would have. NASA says the planet would continue to warm.

I am not comforted.

Wiley Hollingsworth

Pullman