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SHTF = Climate Change = Suitable Crops

October 3rd, 2009 by Rob | 1 Comment | Filed in crops, global warming

Survivalists tend to focus on coping without access to the luxuries of the current era. An aspect that is often neglected is that, whether it is due to global warming, cosmic rays, volcanic eruptions or a pole shift, you could find yourself suddenly in a new climate.

Consequently the crops of today might not prosper. A smart survivalist will make preparations for local climate change, and be ready to deploy crops that suit the new environment. Given that nobody knows if or how drastically the climate might change, this would require storing the seeds of a wide variety of crops.
Over in Peru there is a currently an initiative that is attempting to ensure, no matter what the climate, we will always have potatoes:
The Peruvian farmers will be paid to look after the most diverse collection of potatoes in the world. They will try growing varieties at different altitudes and in different climatic conditions so that if today’s commercially available potato varieties start to fail anywhere in the world, replacement varieties will be ready and waiting.

Farewell Sunspots?

September 20th, 2009 by Rob | 2 Comments | Filed in global warming, sunspots

trend3 strip Farewell Sunspots?http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/03sep_sunspots.htm?list1302321

Because I know that is has happened before – the Maunder Minimum was a period between 1645 to 1715 where sunspots were very rare compared to today – I am quite concerned that the decline in the magnetic field strength of sunspots will continue.

“According to our measurements, sunspots seem to form only if the magnetic field is stronger than about 1500 gauss,” says Livingston. “If the current trend continues, we’ll hit that threshold in the near future, and solar magnetic fields would become too weak to form sunspots.”

What could it mean for us? We could be entering a phase of global cooling. According to Wikipedia:

The Maunder Minimum coincided with the middle — and coldest part — of the Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America, and perhaps much of the rest of the world, were subjected to bitterly cold winters. Whether there is a causal connection between low sunspot activity and cold winters is the subject of ongoing debate…

Global Warming: Is it just the Sun?

November 29th, 2007 by Rob | No Comments | Filed in global warming, sun

My opinion: some scientists think it is, most think it isn’t, but all are just educated guesses… which means it could just be the Sun, and this means that the Sun could conceivably do something unpredictable (by us today) in 2012…

In what could be the simplest explanation for one component of global warming, a new study shows the Sun’s radiation has increased by .05 percent per decade since the late 1970s.

The increase would only be significant to Earth’s climate if it has been going on for a century or more, said study leader Richard Willson, a Columbia University researcher also affiliated with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The Sun’s increasing output has only been monitored with precision since satellite technology allowed necessary observations. Willson is not sure if the trend extends further back in time, but other studies suggest it does.

“This trend is important because, if sustained over many decades, it could cause significant climate change,” Willson said.

In a NASA-funded study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, Willson and his colleagues speculate on the possible history of the trend based on data collected in the pre-satellite era.

“Solar activity has apparently been going upward for a century or more,” Willson told SPACE.com today.