NASA finally mentions the Maunder Minimum in its discussion of the current prolonged solar minimum, but it STILL does not mention that the Maunder Minimum coincided with the onset of the Little Ice Age, or that the Dalton Minimum in the early 1800’s was also cold, as was the unnamed fin-de-the-1800’s minimum.
Thar she blows, the Maunder Minimum of sunspot activity:
As it has done for two years now, NASA is predicting that solar cycle 24 will ramp up tomorrow. Should that broken-clock prediction hits its hour, then NASA is also predicting that solar cycle 24 will have the modest amplitude of the 1928 cycle, indicated by the red arrow.
A look at the temperature record shows the correspondence between solar activity and temperature:
Maunder Minimum cold; Dalton minimum (just before the red thermometer-based line starts) cold; unnamed end-of-1800’s minimum (first dip in red line) cold; “grand maximum” solar activity between 1920 and 2000 warm. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes when you’re sifting thru general news, you run across a couple of items with 6 degrees of separation that truly make you go “huh??”. Such is the case in the legal battles of the proposed hybrid dry cooled coal-fired Desert Rock plant in New Mexico.
Early this year, the Navajo Nation and Sithe Global Power filed a lawsuit against the EPA for delays in issuing an air quality permit by the July 31st deadline for the proposed plant. New Mexico’s AG said it couldn’t be done because it would be in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Desert Rock spokesman Frank Maisano said the lawsuit was filed because the EPA broke the law by not deciding on the permit within the required time. By law, the EPA must make a decision within 12 months of receiving a completed application. Desert Rock’s application was deemed complete in May 2004.
“That’s easy math – it’s more than three years overdue at this point,” Maisano said.
The EPA agreed to the July 31 deadline to decide on the permit as part of a settlement of the lawsuit, but the state entities decided to intervene because they believe the permit cannot be acted upon until other environmental reviews are completed.
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In a news release, Attorney General Gary King said, “This permitting process is truly putting the cart before the horse. We believe there are a number of regulatory issues that need to be addressed by the EPA before it can make a decision on this permit.”
The issues King’s office raised include the plant’s possible effects on fish and wildlife, carbon-dioxide pollution and compliance with federal standards for ozone pollution.
Read the rest of this entry »
