THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 139, July 22, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
A SUNNY VIEW OF OBLIVION
By Alan Caruba
ULTIMATELY, WILL PLANET EARTH & THE HUMAN SPECIES COME TO AN END? IF SO, WHEN & HOW WILL THE
FINAL END OCCUR? THERE HAVE BEEN MANY PREDICTIONS REGARDING THIS MATTER -- SOME OF THEM BASED
ON SCIENTIFIC STUDIES & HYPOTHESES, OTHERS IN THE FORM OF THEOLOGICAL & MYTHOLOGICAL BELIEFS.
GIVEN SCIENCE-BASED SCENARIOS & THE EARTH'S NATURAL HISTORY OVER THE LAST APPROXIMATELY FIVE BILLION
YEARS, THERE IS A HIGH PROBABILITY THAT NATURE HAS IN STORE FOR THE EARTH & ITS INHABITANTS SOME VERY
UNPLEASANT EVENTS, EVENTS TO OCCUR SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE. WHAT, WHEN, & HOW? CLOSE
OBSERVATION OF SOLAR ACTIVITY WILL PROVIDE SOME CLUES, BUT ONLY GOD KNOWS FOR SURE.
FULL STORY:
Despite a plethora of television programs and books on the topic, predicting the End of the World has become boring.
For example, on June 10, 2007, you had a choice between watching the 61st. Annual Tony Awards or Last Days on
Earth on the History Channel. “Scientists Explain Seven of the Deadliest Threats to Humanity” was the topic and,
later that evening, you could check out Mega Disasters, with its story of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
Indeed, hardly a week goes by without some television program devoted the planet’s extinction.
Many ancient cultures developed a highly sophisticated understanding of astronomy. An obsession of the Mayans,
the more they learned, the more they understood the relationship of the Earth, the Sun, and the observable solar system.
In a curious coincidence, China’s ancient I Ching is a book that, like the Mayans, predicts 2012 as the end of the
world.
Ever since Galileo invented the telescope in 1610, the notion that the Sun is at the center of our solar system has come to
be an accepted fact, but, oddly, the Sun does not receive credit for the Earth’s climate. More than any other factor,
however, the Sun influences and determines known climate cycles such as ice ages.
Deliberately confusing people still further is all the blather about an Earth-threatening “global warming” caused by scary
“greenhouse gases.” This silliness is used to justify the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, i.e., limiting the use of
any and all energy sources. I guess we’re really lucky that two billion people still don’t even have access to electricity.
Of course, they may not be thrilled by it.
Aside from the fact that 95% of greenhouse gas is water vapor, scientists with no agenda other than, well, science, are
far more concerned about what the Sun has been doing of late and what it is likely to be doing within five years. If they
are right, humanity is in big trouble.
Lawrence E. Joseph has authored Apocalypse 2021: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization’s End ($23.95,
Morgan Road Books) and, aside from scaring the reader with some interesting science, history and conjecture, the book
performs the useful service of getting one to focus on the Sun, a huge, gelatinous mass of roiling gases that, depending
on what it is doing, either heats or cools the Earth.
What the sun has been doing lately is behaving oddly.
We are all familiar with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the four 2004 hurricanes that hit Florida in rapid succession. Then,
following all that hurricane activity, none made landfall in 2006. The connection is the way sunspot activity correlates
with climatic conditions on Earth. Lawrence notes that, “By every scientific measure, 2005 was supposed to have seen
very few sunspots,” explaining that, “Sunspots are larger-than-Earth magnetic storms that blemish the solar surface.”
In fact, on Halloween, 2003, sunspot activity generated the largest radiation storm ever recorded. Happily, most of it
missed the Earth, but the real mystery is why it occurred at or near the solar minimum, the point in the eleven-year cycle
when there is supposed to be little solar sunspot activity. Scientists have long known that sunspots occur in cycles of
nine to thirteen years, most often lasting about eleven years. The next cycle will begin in 2012.
Sami Solanki, of the famed Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, believes, “Except possibly for a
few brief peaks, the Sun is more active currently than at any time in the past 11,000 years.” So, yes, the Earth may be
warming slightly, but it has nothing to do with human activity.
Moreover, 11,000 years ago coincides approximately with the end of the last Ice Age. Depending on whom you believe,
we are either due a new Ice Age or the Sun is about to roast the Earth like a marshmallow.
Lawrence bases his prediction of nasty things on the theory of an interstellar energy cloud. Such a cloud would
destabilize the Sun. To his credit, Lawrence does not believe the end of the Earth will occur in 2012, but he does believe
we are entering a period of “unprecedented turmoil and upheaval” as the result of the Sun’s odd behavior. A lot of
science appears to support his view.
By the time you get to the end of his book, he recommends you grab hold of any mythology or theology that works for
you, because he admits he hasn’t a clue if or when doomsday will occur.
People have been predicting the End of the Earth or the End Times for a very long time, dating back to the Mayan
civilization that, you may have noticed, isn’t around any more. The Bible has similar predictions and Islam, too,
subscribes to its own version.
Given the science-based scenarios and the fact that the Earth has gone through some fairly astonishing changes over
the last approximately five billion years, it is likely that some very unpleasant events will occur sometime.
Fear not, the cockroaches will survive.
Want to see what the Sun is doing? Visit http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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