An intriguing mystery – and a very speculative theory

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

John Holdren, President Obama’s Science Advisor, once tried to reframe the climate debate in terms of his prediction of  “global climate disruption”. Holdren stated at the time, that the term “global warming” is “a dangerous misnomer”.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/16/the-morphology-of-global-warming/

The question – does John Holdren believe that “global climate disruption” might actually lead to global cooling? Is this why Holdren is unhappy with the term “global warming”? Is this the advice Holdren is giving to President Obama?

Because there is some very circumstantial evidence that America, and other governments, may already be planning ahead, for the possibility that the world will cool.

Over the last few years, a number of major Australian newspapers have posted stories about the rising issue of large scale foreign buyouts of Australian farmland.

For example:-

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/divisions-grow-in-govt-over-farm-buyouts/story-fni0xqi4-1226740170681

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/australia-is-the-great-foreign-owned-land-as-more-nsw-farms-being-sold-overseas/story-e6freuzi-1226281573668

The big question is – why? Why would opaque Chinese and American companies, some of are believed to be government backed, be so interested in large scale ownership of Australian farmland, land which the IPCC and Australian CSIRO predict will shortly become worthless desert?

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/9/27/science-environment/warming-hit-home-australians-ipcc

The reason of course is the land will not shortly become worthless. The land may shortly become very valuable indeed.

Back in 2006, the Russian Academy of Science predicted imminent severe global cooling, beginning in 2012-2015, peaking at around 2055.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20060825/53143686.html

Their prediction is based on the historic correlation between solar cycles and global climate.

Humans have been aware of the 11 year climate cycle since the dawn of history – several good years followed by several bad years is a fact of life. But there are also other, longer, more powerful cycles, which have an even larger impact on global climate.

One of them is the 200 year cycle. Every 200 years or so, solar activity falls to a sustained low. These long periods of low activity, known by the names of the scientists who discovered them – Maunder, Dalton, etc. – coincided historically with periods of extreme cold – plummeting global temperatures, crashing food production, and drastically shorter and less reliable growing seasons in the Northern Hemisphere.

At the peak of the cold periods, history records widespread famines and other disasters, such as the Year Without a Summer in 1816, a food production catastrophe triggered by low solar activity during the Dalton Minimum, combining with an unusually severe series of major volcanic eruptions. In the Year without a Summer, over vast areas, crops in the Northern hemisphere were destroyed by snow and frost in mid Summer, which created global famine and social unrest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

If the Russian Academy of Science is correct, the world is on the brink of a new cold period, which will start to bite in the next few years.

We could even see another year without a summer – there are several large volcanoes which are overdue for major eruptions, such as Katla in Iceland and Merapi in Indonesia. When they erupt, they shall add to downward pressure on global temperatures.

Given the risk, what could a nation whose grain belt is vulnerable to global cooling do, to protect its future food supply?

The obviously solution is to buy up farmland in another country.

A country which is warm enough, so that even if global temperatures fall significantly, the land they purchased would remain highly productive. A country with a strong tradition of respect for the rule of law. A country which would continue to respect the rule of law, even in the face of a global catastrophe.

A country like Australia.

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Note: They key word in the title is “very speculative”, but I thought it was an interesting question. It may also simply be part of China’s economic expansion, which we have also witnessed in the USA with them buying up properties. – Anthony