Burning the Furniture

Here are a few pieces of the larger puzzle of our global climate and how the individual decisions we make tip events into unexpected places.

Hint: Buy stock in companies that make thermal underwear, with a secondary choice in firearms ammunition. As you will see further down in the comments on a blog called Hill Buzz, gun owners are increasing and ammunition is becoming scarce.

But let’s follow things in the order I found them.

The first piece arrived in a link DJ sent. It was a feature on the thinning of the Heliosphere. Did anyone (besides Zenster) even know the Heliosphere existed? Well, it does, and its future looks as gloomy as those Brits deprived of their pubs:

Global warming alarmists face yet another challenge to their predictions of an inferno of doom. The solar wind is losing power, and is at a fifty year low, according to NASA.

The Ulysses solar probe reports a 13% drop in temperature, a 20% drop in density, and a 30% drop-off in the sun’s magnetic field, marking this as the weakest period of solar wind on record (records go back to the 1960’s).

What does this mean? The Heliosphere is thinning, and thus will block fewer cosmic rays. Heinrick Svensmark theorizes that an increase in cosmic rays reaching the Earth will drive cloud formation, increase the planet’s albedo (reflectivity), thus cooling it.

Is this the cause of the Earth’s unusually cool year? According to Anthony Watts, the Earth’s albedo reached a nadir in 1997, and has risen sharply since. Is this related to the weakening of solar activity? We’ve seen few sunspots in Solar Cycle 24, the solar conveyor belt has slowed to a crawl, and now the solar wind is bottoming out.

This information was the first alarm - alarming because scientists can observe the information, but they’re not sure of its implications.

And here is a handy graph, showing the temperature slide:


The graph is followed by Alarm #2.

Yesterday, I went over to Archonix’ blog and there he was, dysphorically contemplating why nothing matters, not even the Ummah. I’ve never described anyone as glumly triumphant, but I think Archonix has a touch of the exultant in his conclusion. See what you think.

It is an alluring writer indeed who can start with “why we don’t matter” and by some traipsing through a maze of contemplation bring one to the gate that says “the light of truth shines brightest in the dark”. Sometimes I think Archonix has escaped from a Bernard Cornwell novel. You need to read the whole thing, and I didn’t want to spoil the suspense by cutting-and-pasting his entire post. Click on it and see what you think:

The anti-jihad doesn’t matter.

It’s a pretty controversial statement, I agree, but it’s true. We cannot change the world.

We fight, but our governments and their useful idiots ignore us. We protest and they call us “racist” and “haters”. We ask only that we be allowed to share our views and they call us “intolerant”. The way things stand we are not able, and will not be able, to make an effective change. We will be condemned to forever flit around the edges of society, holding aloft the guttering torch of truth as the crowd turns its back on us, preferring the self-inflicted twilight of its own company. In that situation we cannot effect any change because to do so would require overwhelming power, and overwhelming power - the power to force people to take our views - would destroy us utterly.

But that isn’t why we don’t matter.

Islam has that power. Islam has the power to overthrow governments at a snails pace. It has the power to discredit dissent, emotionally and reputationally destroy its opposition. It has the power of government and keeps the people in darkness, by telling them that the light of truth is a lie. It hides behind tolerance and screams “racist” at the people who oppose it, and uses that same government and those same useful idiots to do the hard work so it doesn’t get its lily-white hands dirty. It enslaves and ensnares and is at the point, now, where overthrow by the means we employ is virtually impossible, or would take so long that it cannot hope to succeed in time.

But that isn’t why we don’t matter.

Several events happened this year, largely unremarked, that dictate how the world will be shaped for the next 20 or 30 years…

- - - - - - - - -

First, we reached a new record of “spotless days” for the sun. The sun is at a solar minima not seen since modern records began, and estimated as similar to that preceding the Maunder Minimum, which coincided with the little ice-age. Though the mechanism is not fully understood there is a definite causal link between sun-spot activity, cloud-cover and temperature.

Second, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or PDO, did what in the parlance would be called a “flip”. It reversed. The PDO is a well-known cycle of currents and temperatures in the pacific ocean that periodically moves through warm and cold phases. The most recent flip has brought it into a cold phase.

Third, the push for “green energy” has finally resulted in the application of CO2 emission controls being implemented in EU member states. The significant part of this is that many power stations are now no longer operating at anywhere near their peak capacity. In order to comply with the new regulations many large coal-fired energy producers are required to effectively switch off for up to half the year.

The result is…

The consequences Archonix describes are dark and dangerous and explore new territories. Go read it if you are the stalwart type. Or just resume reading Obama’s oraculations. I am positive he has the whole simple solution for this problem right up his sleeve, just waiting for the right moment. In the meantime, there are his plans to bankrupt clean up the coal industry, a plan that’s been public since last January.

That anti-coal stance is a real no-brainer for raking in the votes in San Francisco and Berkeley, me boy. But back in the real world, let’s hope your bright ideas are enough to keep the rest of us warm. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will have you for breakfast should its citizens get wind of this ecological stupidity. No wonder the MSM tip-toed right on by this piece of sludge way back in January. Had they been honest brokers, they’d have publicized your strange ideas. But they knew you’d be toast or is “toast’ a racist smear? Whatever.

Hillary would now be the nominee and people would not be out buying guns in order to feel safe from your strange economic philosophy.

Here’s some of the Newsbusters’ transcript of the words dropping from the lips of the One back in January:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it. [emphasis from Newsbusters]

Great idea, Obie. And so what are your suggestions as to what we might do to keep warm while these “alternate energy approaches” become a reality in the next two decades or so? After we finish burning our furniture to keep warm, may we have some of yours?

Alarm #3:

Insubria sent a tip about Italy’s message to the EU regarding the “unsustainable costs” for climate control rules as they apply to Italy in particular. In a search for fuller information, I came across a blog I’ll have to investigate more closely later. Right now, though, The New American reports:

Because of economic difficulties emanating from the worldwide banking crisis, some EU members such as Poland and Italy have stated that they cannot afford to enforce the stringent emissions targets on their industrial sector.

But the global economic difficulties have not caused EU leaders to abandon their advocacy of carbon controls. BBC reported President Sarkozy’s statement: “The climate package is so important that we cannot simply drop it, under the pretext of a financial crisis.” And European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said at the close of the summit: “We are not going to let up on the battle against climate change.”

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was less enthusiastic and reportedly threatened to exercise a veto to demand less of a burden on Italian industry.

The EU’s proposed actions still did not satisfy environmental extremists, however, and they accused Sarkosy and his associates at the EU with creating loopholes in the legislation to protect Europe’s domestic industries.

As Reuters quoted Greenpeace spokesman Mark Breddy: “Mr. Sarkozy and others are showing that they are unwilling to walk the walk when it comes to decisive action.”

Ironically, Greenpeace has long been a leading opponent of clean, environmentally friendly nuclear power, with which France generates 80 percent of its electricity.

A statement on the EU’s website summed up this summit’s work as follows:

The European Council reaffirmed the objective of reaching an overall agreement on the energy-climate change package for the December European Council and agreed on the Presidency and the Commission intensifying work towards this end.

Many leading scientists have disagreed publicly with the more widely publicized position that made-made emissions have had a warming effect on the Earth’s climate. These include John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel; S. Fred Singer, a top environmental scientist and former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service; Dr. Patrick Michaels, a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia; and Professor Benny Peiser of Liverpool’s John Moores University.

[Note to readers: please don’t deluge me with leftist sites declaring anathema on Patrick Michaels. It’s been long shown that the charges are scurrilous and I’m not going to waste bandwidth on that one.]

Alarm #4

Gun sales are waaay up. Hill Buzz blog (devoted to Hillary fans planning to bury O with votes for McCain) has a post entitled, “This is FASCINATING - gun sales increase could predict Obama defeat”. The long string of thoughtful commenters describe their decision to buy firearms and their unhappiness with having to do so. One commenter left a link to this story (it doesn’t appear to have a permanent separate link so scroll down the page to a piece entitled “Moving Toward the Elections):

For the past few days we’ve been receiving questions from our readers asking a single question: “what about the election?” It’s a question that’s not easy to answer, because there is simply so much at stake a week from tomorrow. And it’s not all the obvious “stuff” that should worry each of us. There are issues to be decided that have the potential to impact every aspect of our lives, not just our wallets.

When James Carville wrote: “It’s the economy, stupid” on a blackboard several years ago, he solidified a focus on the single issue that assured Bill Clinton a place in the White House. Today, Carville would need considerably more words - and chalk - to cover the topics of concern we are all facing.

From the economy to the subjects we’re permitted to teach in schools next week’s ballots are filled with important issues. And not all of us face the same issues - that’s one reason I’ve not bored anyone with my personal political positions.

On the issue of firearms and rights, telling anyone who believes neither party has any interest in dialing-down gun rights at this point is not only a waste of time, it’s a hopeless cause. Despite the nastiness of the campaign, there are some elemental truths that cannot be argued.

One is that the Democratic Party, the party of my family for generations before me, has no intention of leaving that subject alone.

The Outdoor Wire has confirmed from confidential sources that the “transition team” for the Democratic candidate has already begun looking into the current approval system for firearms transactions. It seems the digital recordkeeping approval recently granted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has piqued their curiosity. With a virtual Form 4473 in existence, we should be on the lookout for a new record-keeping initiative that will “simplify” the hassles of off-site digital record storage by allowing FFLs to, say, store the information on secure governmental servers. Of course, the government will never access the information.

Of course it won’t. Government holds your personal information with the utmost of respectful privacy. If this record-keeping bumf about gun owners is true, I expect a booming (so to speak) business in black market guns. It’s the same phenomenon that happens when states raise their cigarette taxes: the big semis move up the interstates from the less-heavily taxed southern states toward those big Yankee cities. The trailers attached to them are stuffed with contraband tobacco. The business is too huge, too lucrative, and too covert for Law enforcement to make even the smallest dent in the traffic.

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A few predictions, based on the information in these articles:

1.		Lots of frenzied emergency preparations by otherwise placid citizens.
2.		A run on the market for Boy Scouts, military veterans, and other outdoor-types who can start fires by rubbing two sticks together, can box the compass, and can dig a trench latrine.
3.		The capture and plucking of those nasty Canada geese which infest artificial suburban ponds. Those feathers will make lovely warm protective garments for the children.
4.		In desperation, the greasy carcasses of those naked geese will be source of protein, however repugnant.
5.		Barter will return as the primary form of economic transaction. A good reason to stock up on tobacco products, even if you don’t smoke or chew. Also incandescent light bulbs. And whiskey.
6.		Which reminds me: learn how to make hooch in the bathtub.

Further suggestions from any passing outlaws will be welcome.

I’m counting on your creative criminality.