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The sun was completely free of any sunspots whatsoever for 266 out of 385 days last year, and that meant no sunspots for ~70% of the time in 2008. That makes 2008 a century-class year in terms of low sunspot numbers and not coincidentally the coldest year on record for the last decade. <br> <br> To find a single year with more blank suns you have to go way back to 1913, which had 311 days of no sunspots whatever. That's pretty incredible when you look at the history of observable sunspots for which we have various records going back over a thousand years. <br> <br> During the Medieval Warming Period, ~1000-1250 C.E., the world was much warmer than it is today. It also happens to coincide with increased observable sunspot activity over the period. It warmed so much back then that the Vikings established extensive settlements in Greenland during this time where they were able to raise crops and various livestock. But by ~1300 C.E. the world and notably Europe had cooled considerably. Ice flows started to block passage to their western settlements from Iceland / Europe, crops started to fail, animals began to die off because of the continued cold winters. They subsequently abandoned their many sites which are now mostly covered over by ice today. <br> <br> That cooling period is known today as “The Little Ice Age”…a period “which brought bitterly cold winters to many parts of the world, but is most thoroughly documented in Europe and North America. In the mid-17th century, glaciers in the Swiss Alps advanced, gradually engulfing farms and crushing entire villages. The River Thames and the canals and rivers of the Netherlands often froze over during the winter, and people skated and even held frost fairs on the ice..." The first documented time the River Thames froze over was in 1607; the last was in 1814. We know today that period also coincided with much decreased sunspot activity compared to more recent decades of "normal" activity. <br> <br> Pure coincidence?<br> <br> Folks, when it comes to global warming or global cooling for that matter, it really is all about that big yellow thing in the sky..<br> <br> “Once a person becomes a believer of global warming, you never have to defend this belief except to claim that you are supported by all scientists -- except for a handful of corrupted heretics”...Richard Lindzen - MIT climate scientist
By Doug in Duluth
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