Milky Way's Spiral Arms Could Not Have Caused Climate Change 86
KentuckyFC writes "One of the puzzles of Earth's climate history is an apparent 140-million-year cycle in the climate record. Various astronomers think this can be explained by the passage of the Sun through the spiral arms of the Milky Way, which also seems to have had a period of about 140 million years. The thinking is that in regions of denser star populations, supernovas would have been more common, bathing the Earth in cosmic rays more often. These cosmic rays would then have seeded the formation of clouds that cool the planet. But in recent years, astronomers have mapped out the structure of the galaxy in much more detail. And now a pair of US astronomers have reanalyzed this climate change idea in light of the new evidence. Their conclusion is that the climate change cycle cannot possibly have coincided with the movement of the Sun through the spiral arms. So whatever caused the 140-million-year climate change cycle on Earth, it wasn't the Sun's passage through the galaxy."
Re:Climatologists struggle to stay relevant (Score:2, Informative)
Bummer how the latest economic crunch sent all the "green" masturbators back to their basements.
Yeah, look at them hiding in their basements [yahoo.com].
Re:Since these comments are going to suck.... (Score:2, Informative)
Where is the national security in forcing any remaining manufacturers offshore where they don't have to deal with carbon credits and higher electrical costs?
The US has 273 billion tons of proven coal reserves, far more than any other country, and that coal can be liquefactioned into gasoline.
It is difficult to say who is right (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Climatologists struggle to stay relevant (Score:2, Informative)
Neither are false analogies, they are useful examples. His illustrates the principle that just because something is not the top effect it is still worth correcting because if left unchecked it could be disastrous, yours demonstrates the principle that some problems are small and local enough that they don't matter. Both are useful, they just apply to different situations. Unlike hippos, you can't avoid the global climate. Unlike murder, you can't even avoid it by avoiding civilization. Human post-industrial emissions falls in the category of things worth addressing even if it isn't the biggest threat, in my opinion.
Though to get back to non-analogies again research shows that solar variance only accounts for ~30% of the measured change. Yeah believe it or not climatologists remembered to check into the effect of the sun even before trolls piped up to remind them of its existence. Amazing, I know. They're so busy raking in those lucrative global warming bucks and shopping for sports cars and maintaining the charade that is global warming, it's amazing they can remember anything about the environment. Meanwhile, the paupers in the oil industry plead for sanity, trying to find the few climatologists honest enough to work for nothing on behalf of the truth.
That last paragraph had nothing to do with your post, btw. The "It's the sun, fools!" line is still a good troll, enough that I bit several comment generations later. :)
Note: (Score:1, Informative)
It was always expected to narrowly pass in the Democratic-dominated House.
Link again if it passes in the Democratic-dominated Senate (in which it is expected to have a much more difficult time).
Also, Congress became overwhelmingly Democratic in a knee-jerk reaction to the no-longer-popular Bush Administration - had a more moderate Republican been president, I posit that the Democrats would not have had such an overwhelming victory in 2008 and this bill would face much more opposition in both houses of Congress.
I'd argue anyway that the majority of our Congressional representatives (regardless of party) are worthy of the moniker 'basement dweller.'
-Taylor
ANY change? (Score:3, Informative)
You mean like that time that big ball of burning gas shot down and all dinosaurs died? Or did it just burn colder for a while back then?
Re:Since these comments are going to suck.... (Score:4, Informative)
Exactly. The people who rattle on about how the US invades countries for oil tend to fall silent when they find out that Canada is the largest exporter of oil to the US.