Although we’ve been covering this quiet sun issue for over a year on WUWT, the light bulb seems to have gone on for mainstream media right about now.
There is growing press coverage about the current state of the sun, most recently from Charles Osgood of CBS News as well as the BBC and other major outlets. While the sun slumbers deeper and has missed its cyclic snooze alarm, our media is finally waking up to the solar somnolence.
Here is a short roundup of news articles on this subject today:
‘Still Sun’ baffling astronomers
Scientists warn sun has dimmed
Sun ‘at its quietest for 100 years’
Has the sun gone in? Earth’s closest star ‘dimmest it’s been for a century’
So the question arises, now that this has been identified, what should we call it?
There have been some good ideas, such as naming it after Jack Eddy, who coined the phrase “Maunder Minimum“. There’s been some discussion of a “Gore Minimum”, but I don’t like the idea of giving Gore credit for something he has nothing to do with, or even likely understands. There’s been suggestion of “The Hansen Minimum” which makes a little more sense, since he’s an astronomer by training. On that note, Leif Svalgaard predicted this, so maybe it should be his honor.
So, I’ve decided to have a poll, and I’ll take suggestions for other names than what I’ve listed.
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Norwegian Blue Parrot Minimum — “it’s not dead, it’s resting” a la Monty Python:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=dead+parrot+monty+python&hl=en&emb=0&aq=1&oq=dead+parrot#
Landscheidt Minimum (the motion is carried)
We won’t be making a joke out of this, as tempting as that is. So let’s give credit where credit’s due.
Assuming, of course, this does indeed turn out to be a minimum worth naming.
Landscheidt Minimum
Hold your horses, everyone; I could be mistaken, but I don’t think Leif Svalgaard has predicted a minimum, yet. I think he’s only committed to Cycle 24 being low on sunspots at its peak. And I’m pretty sure that everyone is wondering at the evidence that Livingston and Penn are finding.
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After reading all the preceding posts, I am going with ‘Landscheidt- Svalgaard Minimum’.
I still suggest:
The Algorian MilliVanillian Minimum
(i.e. give back the award cause you are a fraud)
“In honor of the man who called AGW the greatest scam in history – Coleman Minimum”
Good idea, name it after Gary Coleman and hope it’s really short.
I second the “Inconvenient Minimum”.
How about, “Leif’s Grand Minimum”
That way it has two meanings…
We shouldn’t name anything after Gore. I could live with the Eddy Minimum, but most of the other possibilities don’t appeal to me in the least.
There’s been such a concerted effort on the part of the MSM not to let the word out, I have to go with The Media-Suppressed Minimum or The Secret Minimum.
Jorge,
How about
“Mum’s the Word Minimum”?
It is self evident!
It should be called The Mann-Made Minimum.
Or MMM for short.
Climate change has been proven to be the products of man activity as was discovered by the eminent geologists Michael Mann.
I suggest we ignore it. It will probably end soon, and we don’t need the distraction. If it doesn’t, that will be okay, also.
Focus, People. 1998 was the Peak. 1998 It’s set in stone, and it’s a pretty safe bet it’s not going to be bested any time soon.
Everything else is built on sand. It’s a good chance this years temeratures will be closer to 07′, than 08′. A good storm in the Arctic in August, and all the ice disappears quicker than Mandrake’s manservant. The Sunspots can reappear at any moment.
The only thing that matters is that it’s getting cooler. How do you know? 1998. KISS
The Solar Slumber
The alliteration should appeal to the media.
“The Upside Down Hockey Stick Minimum”
“Mu” is a Japanese word alleged to mean “Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions”.
So with that bit of knowledge, and hoping it’s a short solar minimum, how about:
The Mu Mini Minimum… which is also a palindrome. I’m sure that Jack Eddy would’ve loved it. And it does roll off the tongue doesn’t it? In the future, people would know we hadn’t lost our sense of humor. It reminds me of another old palindrome from the latin, “Roma summus amor” which means Rome supreme love. Of course mine is not so elegant.
Obamaminimum
He promised change and delivered it in this minimum.
The Inconvenient Minimum
Love that one !. got my vote
Watt Minimum?
I would prefer to call it after Paul D.Jose, the “Jose’ s Minimum”
See his work: http://www.giurfa.com/jose.pdf
I think it is an insult to the sun, our earth, and our dynamic, cyclical climate changes to let the phoney Goricle any where near the name of this new minimum, or the science. I also hope his investment company, Generation Investment Management, of which he is co-founder (along with Goldman Sach’s Hank Where-Did-All-Our-Money-Go Paulson) and chairperson, and from which he buys his carbon credits (The Tennessean), rots in, oh, well, you know.
When Obama was part of all sorts of scams in Chicago through serving on the board of the Joyce Foundation, among others, he voted to give money ($1.1 million in two separate grants) to found the Chicago Climate Exchange, the only firm in the U.S. that claims to trade carbon credits “for all six greenhouse gases” that, what do you know, the EPA has just found to be serious pollutants. From my reading, Gore’s GIM has considerable influence over it. Just wait until a cap-and-trade law is passed. The participants — the new government-created bureacratic elites — are slobbering over their newly generated wealth that will be stolen from productive nations, industries, and people.
Today is Earth Day. Two ironies leap from the consideration of its creation April 22, 1970. First the save-the-earth hysteria at that time was focused on GLOBAL COOLING — the new ice age acomin’. Second, does it seem a little strange to anyone that April 22 is also Valdimir Lenin’s birthday? Since Al Gore has celebrated this anniversary everyday in our recent memories, one might wonder whose example he is following. I think Al’s father would turn over in his grave.
If President Obama goes ahead with his proposed cap and trade bill or permits the EPA to enact regulations taxing or otherwise penalizing the use of Fossil fuels, then he will wind up owning the crisis that will follow, and he will deserve to be remembered as the man who initiated the greatest policy blunder of modern times. It should be called the Obama Minimum.
The Archibald Minimum!
The Goracle Maximus Minimum
Mike Bryant (12:39:58) :
No. As far as I know it began in 1989 and the decrease in temperatures started in 1998, when all the heat saved in the south pacific seas began to be transferred to the atmosphere.