That's very interesting. Clearly there has been a substantial growth of the Arctic ice since last year.

However, when I looked up the article you referred to, TEEEJ, I came across a link which said this:

Quote
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado released an alarming graph on August 11, showing that Arctic ice was rapidly disappearing, back towards last year's record minimum.
The article that discussed the ice coverage in the Arctic rejected the graph from NSIDC. However, the article didn't dispute the claim that last year's ice coverage represented a record low.

In other words, it appears that last year's Arctic ice coverage was at a record minimum. Yes, the ice coverage has grown since last year, but from a very low level.

Anyway, the ice coverage has clearly grown. Is it possible that we are actually seeing a bit of global cooling here? Yes, it is possible, and if so there is a probable reason for it, namely the current sunspot cycle. There seems to be a definite correlation between the number of sunspots on the Sun and the temperature on the Earth: the more sunspots there are, the more active is the Sun, the more energy it releases, and the warmer it gets on the Earth. During the 17th century there appears to have been extremely few sunspots, and during that time it was particularly cold in at least parts of the world.

And right now the Sun seems to be almost completely devoid of sunspots.

So it is possible that the Sun is entering a quieter, less active phase, which could indeed result in some degree of global cooling. On the other hand, that global cooling could well be offset by an ever-increasing release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And the next time the Sun becomes really active again, the combination of a more active Sun and record amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could result in even faster global warming.

The Sun does what it does, and what it does has nothing to do with humanity. But the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has so much to do with us. Both the changing of the Earth's atmosphere and humanity's responsibility for it are facts.

The site that TEEEJ referred us to, Alex Jones Prison Planet, called carbon dioxide an 'evil life-giving gas that we exhale'. Thereby this site implied that human breathing is the main source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is certainly true that oxygen-breathing organisms exhale carbon dioxide, and green plants use that carbon dioxide along with water and sunlight to make nutrients for themselves and more oxygen for us. But the increase of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is mostly due to humanity's burning of fossil fuels. Add to that that trees are being cut down in record number globally, which could potentially lead to lower oxygen levels in the Earth's atmosphere.

If we run out of oxygen I can only hope that Prison Planet is right, and that carbon dioxide will prove just as life-giving and good to breathe as oxygen.

[Linked Image]

Planet Venus. Its thick swirling atmosphere is chock full of carbon dioxide. Venus ought to be teeming with life, no?

Ann