Comets are believed by some experts to have wiped out megafauna species
The normally peaceable world of geology is currently alive with a fiery debate over the theory that deadly space rocks slammed into Northern Canada about 13,000 years ago, triggering a mini-Ice Age and the eventual extinction of the woolly mammoth and a host of other prehistoric species.
That contentious hypothesis - which has prompted a number of studies in recent years probing sites throughout North America for traces of the alleged extraterrestrial blast -is under renewed attack after a team of U.S. and British researchers published a paper last week arguing that previous claims of impact evidence are demonstrably mistaken.
The new study takes particular aim at several supposed discoveries of "nanodiamonds" at sites around North America -hailed by advocates of the impact theory as proof that a cosmic blast sent showers of "shocked" rock particles across the continent 13,000 years ago.
Extreme Temperatures
© TVNZ
"Federated Farmers is now working with Agriculture Minister David Carter on a medium scale adverse event declaration," a federation spokesman said tonight.
Such a declaration could give help such as that provided to farmers in recent serious droughts, including funding for a rural support trust to offer financial advice.
Agriculture Minister David Carter will tomorrow visit the small farm the federation's national president, Don Nicolson, and his wife Gail run at Waimatua, southeast of Invercargill, and the farms of Matthew and Vanessa Richards and David and Alana Clarke.
© NOAA
1970s New York Snowstorm.
1970s New York Snowstorm.
Solar scientists, not to be confused with climate scientists, study the most important heat engine driving our planet's temperatures-the sun.
Matthew Penn and William Livingston, solar astronomers with the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, have found a marked decrease in sunspot activity lately. Studies show that such a marked drop in sunspots may lead to a prolonged cooling epoch or even a new ice age.
Since the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 the talk has been about global warming. But 22 years on the evidence has grown to raise fears of a catastrophic climate switch in the opposite direction. We look at the evidence that is raising some very serious questions in the scientific community.
South Orange, New Jersey - In the Greek myth about Cassandra, she could foresee the future, but no one believed her warnings. Her name is believed to be derived from the words for beauty and the sun.
Any number of solar scientists and others are warning that the Earth is on the brink of a new Ice Age at worst, a mini ice age at best. Dr. Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam has concluded that the next Ice Age will come on so swiftly that in barely a year much of the northern hemisphere will be encased in ice and snow.
The last Ice Age lasted 13,000 years. The Little Ice Age from around 1300 to 1850 lasted long enough to transform European society and have a profound affect on the histories of America and France. In England, they went from growing grapes to skating on a completely frozen Thames.
Any number of solar scientists and others are warning that the Earth is on the brink of a new Ice Age at worst, a mini ice age at best. Dr. Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam has concluded that the next Ice Age will come on so swiftly that in barely a year much of the northern hemisphere will be encased in ice and snow.
The last Ice Age lasted 13,000 years. The Little Ice Age from around 1300 to 1850 lasted long enough to transform European society and have a profound affect on the histories of America and France. In England, they went from growing grapes to skating on a completely frozen Thames.
© William Livingston/NSO
Weaklings. Without penumbrae, which can be seen in the yellow image, today's sunspots are weakening magnetically.
Weaklings. Without penumbrae, which can be seen in the yellow image, today's sunspots are weakening magnetically.
Sunspots appear when upwellings of the sun's magnetic field trap ionized plasma - or electrically charged, superheated gas - on the surface. Normally, the gas would release its heat and sink back below the surface, but the magnetic field inhibits this process. From Earth, the relatively cool surface gas looks like a dark blemish on the sun.
Astronomers have been observing and counting sunspots since Galileo began the practice in the early 17th century. From those studies, scientists have long known that the sun goes through an 11-year cycle, in which the number of sunspots spikes during a period called the solar maximum and drops - sometimes to zero - during a time of inactivity called the solar minimum.
© Aaron Putnam, University of Maine
Thick ice once filled New Zealand's Irishman Basin.
Thick ice once filled New Zealand's Irishman Basin.
A new study in Nature brings them a step closer by establishing that New Zealand was also warming, indicating that the deep freeze up north, called the Younger Dryas for the white flower that grows near glaciers, bypassed much of the southern hemisphere.
© World Net Daily
Habibullo Abdussamatov
Habibullo Abdussamatov
Abdussamatov was speaking yesterday at the Heartland Institute's Fourth International Conference on Climate Change in Chicago, which began Sunday and ends today.
The Little Ice Age, which occurred after an era known in scientific circles as the Medieval Warm Period, is typically defined as a period of about 200 years, beginning around 1650 and extending through 1850.
The winter after this one?
While Arctic ice has always varied greatly, expanding and contracting during the course of a year and also from year to year and decade to decade, the expansion of the Arctic ice this decade is significant in one respect: It acts to disprove the models that had predicted that the Arctic ice in this century would not recover as it had in previous centuries.
The expansion of the Arctic ice also acts to support a growing number of reports that Earth could be in for a period of global cooling. In one recent example, on April 14 New Scientist in an article entitled "Quiet Sun Puts Europe on Ice" warned its readers as follows: "BRACE yourself for more winters like the last one, northern Europe. Freezing conditions could become more likely: winter temperatures may even plummet to depths last seen at the end of the 17th century, a time known as the Little Ice Age. That's the message from a new study that identifies a compelling link between solar activity and winter temperatures in northern Europe."
"Metres of snow every day for months on end", as seems to have occurred before, would kill everyone in northern countries - Russia, Poland, Germany, Scandinavia, northern Britain, Canada, northern USA - from Moscow to Seattle - in just a few days.
Elementary risk analysis shows that, at the very least, detailed studies of possible counter-measures and even preparations for a "crash program" are URGENTLY needed.
Governments have already spent hundreds of millions, supposedly to avert global warming, yet even the worst-case risk is decades away.
The coming ice age could be just one winter away.
© Choi Heung-soo
Two people in coats walk down a street in central Seoul, Wednesday, as midday high temperatures stood at 7.8 degrees Celsius in Seoul, the lowest for late April since 1908.
Two people in coats walk down a street in central Seoul, Wednesday, as midday high temperatures stood at 7.8 degrees Celsius in Seoul, the lowest for late April since 1908.
Despite efforts to stay warm, the 27-year-old has been struggling with cold from chilly weather for days.
''Warm rays of sunshine were usual at this time in previous years. But it's literarily freezing,'' she said sneezing.
The entire Korean Peninsula is shivering with a record-low spring chill ― the midday high temperature for Seoul recorded 7.8 degrees Celsius and 6.7 degrees for Daejoen, 170 kilometers south from the Seoul, Wednesday, the lowest for late April since 1908, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).
The mercury across the country is forecast to do down further Thursday, with some snow expected in mountainous areas in Gangwon Province.
"The unusual chill is likely to continue until mid May,'' the state weather agency said, adding, ''Rain and accompanying wind made people feel much colder.''
The lowest mid-day temperature for late April in Seoul was 10.1 degrees Celsius, set on April 27, 1962.
