Bloggers and talk radio have had a field day with recent reports that Earth’s average temperature has fallen to its lowest level in twenty years, representing perhaps the biggest decline in nearly a century. But don’t pull out the thermal underwear just yet.
This report should be viewed the way we look at the daily weather this time of year - we know in March that it's going to be warmer next month than it was last month. But we also understand that tomorrow may be far colder than yesterday, so we know better than to take one day's worth of data and proclaim that summer will not arrive. Variations occur, and a single data point does not a trend make. We might still be cooking our own goose.
On the other hand, assumptions that the recent cooling is due to reduced solar activity should serve as a reminder that we have a 27 million degree furnace burning at our sun's core. It doesn't take much of a change in the sun's thermostat to have potentially profound effects on Earth's climate. We can pump all the CO2 insulation into the atmosphere we want and it will be of little consequence if the sun decides to turn down the heat.
But perhaps there’s a larger force behind all of this. It wasn’t that long ago that we ascribed all manner of natural disaster - flood, drought, hurricanes - to the power of God. Today we ascribe them to the power of man. I don't know if that says more about changes in how we view God’s power or how we view our own.. Either way, the change in solar activity could just be the man upstairs' way of having a little fun and reminding us all who’s really in charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment