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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The Tom Paine Minimum, since sunshine warmers will be replaced with winter soldiers.
Or, obviously, the watts minimum!
Certainly do not name it after Gore, we want to reserve his name for the dust bin of history.
What is amazing is that the AGW crowd could give credit to the sun for causing cooling but not the warming of the late 20th century.
If lower solar activity causes cooling, then clearly the reverse is also true, increases solar activity causes warming.
But this crowd just can’t give an inch.
My vote is for the Gore Minimum. One selfish reason is that I printed a T-shirt last year that reads The Gore Minimum – An Inconvenient Ice Age, which I wear to annoy warmists at parties. It features a list of previous minimums and a nice picture of the quiet sun in cool blue.
The more serious reason is that the world needs to remember the stupidity of these recent years. While naming for a scientist may initially seem more proper, I feel we need a reminder of how the good folk of science allowed evil to triumph. Choosing the Gore Minimum as a name is not about making jokes about one man. It is about leaving a permanent reminder to future generations to separate science from politics, just as we now know to separate religion and state.
Landscheidt Minimum in honour of his predictions of the current low activity.
Otherwise Svalgård Minimum
Regarding any effects. IF there are any, (through mechanisms unverified), I would expect a several year delay.
DaveE.
The “Lief-us-alone” minimum in honour of WUWTs know-it-all genius.
Probably “Landscheidt” as the first word but we can’t have “minimum”.
After all, the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) is now officially the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA).
Clearly, since the GCM’s didn’t predict it, it must be an anomaly.
My vote: Landscheidt Spot Anomaly
(Which, unfortunately, sounds a bit like something that you may need antibiotics to treat.)
“Dan Murphy (12:17:02) :
Speaking of that, Leif mentioned in another recent thread that Hathaway had publicly admitted in an e-mail that he (Leif) was right and Hathaway wrong. I do extend my congratulations to him, and suggest that in this circumstance it is perfectly acceptable to feel vindicated, and indeed, perhaps even a bit smug. This should rightly give Leif immense personal and professional satisfaction.”
I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Hathaway for his honour. It takes a big man to admit being wrong.
Unfortunately, a bigger Mann won’t!
DaveE
Actually, the “What’s Up With That?” minimum fits pretty well, capturing both the real and the pretend quizzicality of the alarmists who intentionally ignored 500 million years of correlation between solar activity and climate to claim that late 20th century warming was due to CO2.
It also captures the quizzicality of the general public, which was kept in the dark about the well known correlation between solar activity and climate, as they get to slowly learn what is up with that.
The Watts Wane.
As regards the Goracle…
To name the minimum would be an honour… however… The Gore Pessimum is a description of the ill effects.
DaveE.
The “Mother Nature Spits In Hansen/Gore/AGW Faces Minimum”.
The Mata Hari Minimum?
The Muffled Madman Minimum?
The Mann from Massachusetts Minimum?
The Missing Puck Minimum?
The Monster in the Model Minimum?
And the winner is….
The Svalgaard Minimum.
DaveE (14:48:45) :
“… I would expect a several year delay.”
Maybe we haven’t reached the true minimum yet. What kind of starter/force/mechanism can get a sun restarting? Could there be a partial collapse that could restart the internal processes?
Agreed 100 %
I voted Svalgard because I have read his comments here and at CA. But I am afraid I am not qualified to be the St. John of minima.
Mike Bryant (13:18:09) : (varjious comjments)
I rjeally mjust stojp sijppijng tjea bejfffffore rjeadinjg yjour cjommenjts. Ljook wjhat jyou dijd tjo mjy kjeybjoard!
It just has to be Landscheit Minimum. The evidence is overwhelming.
Please Anthony put Landscheit on the voting list.
Enjoy.
But what’s wrong with “The Dr. Hathaway Says There’s Nothing Wrong with the Sun Minimum?”
Just kidding, David. ☺
First, it is not clear when a minimum should be called a Grand Minimum. Solar activity 100 years ago was low too and we are likely to get down to at least that low level of activity. The Dalton minimum was perhaps [although our data is poor] a tad deeper, and may be called a Grand minimum too, but I personally think that we should reserve ‘Grand Minimum’ for the ones that are REALLY deep like the Maunder. Perhaps one can still name some minima without requiring them to be ‘Grand’, so we could still have a Dalton Minimum [1810], a Gleissberg minimum [1910] , an Eddy Minimum [for the coming one, 2020]. Since these minima have come about every 100 years for a while now, it is no big feat to ‘predict’ one [my little grandson Peter did that several years ago just by looking at http://sidc.oma.be/html/wolfaml.html ].
Off Topic Heads-Up
Air pollution helps plants blunt climate change: study
LINK to Story
There’s a lot of humor here – and I do appreciate that. But — Gore Minimum would give the man exactly what he wants – immortality. Even if not quite the way he’d most want it to happen. The best revenge on Gore is to ignore him – and allow his memory to fade into history as a loser and a non-entity.
For that reason, my vote was for Svalgaard.
One possibility that everyone seems to have overlooked was Aaron Wildavsky, who said that Global Warming was the mother of all environmental scares. But not many people remember that today. And it wasn’t directly related to the subject at hand.
As much as the “Gore Minimum” has a yuk-yuk factor, Leif and Landscheidt should get the credit.
Perhaps call this one the Svaalbard Minimum with Landsheidt Cycle covering the phenomenon.
I vote for the “Much Ado About Nothing Minimum”.
Only ONE more try pleeese….
The Roll over Rasmus Minimum
Man’s Minimum.
(Plays with Mann, and Man’s influence.)
I proudly vote for the Svalgaard Minimum. Who cares if people can’t spell it today. It’s time to learn.
Bruce H