Remember: The Earth Stopped Warming Sixteen Years Ago; It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like .... a Mini-Ice Age

Link here to a great quote from the (London) Telegraph.

Again, the Brits write so well:

As a species, we human beings have become so blind with conceit and self-love that we genuinely believe that the fate of the planet is in our hands — when the reality is that everything, or almost everything, depends on the behaviour and caprice of the gigantic thermonuclear fireball around which we revolve. [That would be the sun, our nearest star.]

I say all this because I am sitting here staring through the window at the flowerpot and the bashed-up barbecue, and I am starting to think this series of winters is not a coincidence. The snow on the flowerpot, since I have been staring, has got about an inch thicker. The barbecue is all but invisible. By my calculations, this is now the fifth year in a row that we have had an unusual amount of snow; and by unusual I mean snow of a kind that I don’t remember from my childhood: snow that comes one day, and then sticks around for a couple of days, followed by more.

I remember snow that used to come and settle for just long enough for a single decent snowball fight before turning to slush; I don’t remember winters like this. Two days ago I was cycling through Trafalgar Square and saw icicles on the traffic lights; and though I am sure plenty of readers will say I am just unobservant, I don’t think I have seen that before. I am all for theories about climate change, and would not for a moment dispute the wisdom or good intentions of the vast majority of scientists. 

The global warming activists can even rationalize colder global temperatures on global warming (see Alice in Wonderland for more on this):

But I am also an empiricist; and I observe that something appears to be up with our winter weather, and to call it “warming” is obviously to strain the language. I see from the BBC website that there are scientists who say that “global warming” is indeed the cause of the cold and snowy winters we seem to be having. A team of Americans and Chinese experts have postulated that the melting of the Arctic ice means that the whole North Atlantic is being chilled as the floes start to break off — like a Martini refrigerated by ice cubes. 

And this dire comment:

“There is every indication that we are at the beginning of a mini ice age,” he says. “The general decline in solar activity is lower than NASA’s lowest prediction of five years ago. That could be very bad news for our climate. We are in for a prolonged cold period. Indeed, we could have 30 years of general cooling.” 

Comments can be sent to the editor, (London) Telegraph.

By the way, re: "30 years of general cooling." The "basic analysis of the Bakken" suggests it will take 30 years of drilling to exhaust the Bakken. The Bakken will continue to produce oil through 2100, based on earlier studies, all of which were based on old data, including this gem:

In 2007, it was expected that a section of the good Bakken would produce a total sum of about 700,000 bbls of oil. 

For newbies, at a minimum, there will be four wells on each section of "good" Bakken and each well is expected to produce at least 500,000 bbls in primary production, and could produce as much as one million bbls. That's primary production based on current technology.

Dangerous Arctic Blast to Hit the Midwest

Meanwhile, back here in the United States, a lot of natural gas is going to be used this next week: a cold blast hitting the United States this week. From Minneapolis, "while here in Minneapolis, the streak will likely end of days where we don't get to zero. We've gone four years, fourteen hundred sixty six (1,466) days without a sub-zero high. That was back in January 15, 2009 -- the last subzero high. Today's high forecast at three degrees below zero and that's 25 degrees below the average of 22 degrees. Take a look at the Midwest now, the cold air coming in ...."

I can't make this stuff up.

Folks may want to read about statistics and the warmest year of the decade, 2012.