Longtime CBS journalist Charles Osgood has recently been studying the climate-change issue in depth, given what he said on an April program:
?The sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity?and last
year, it was supposed to have heated up?and at its peak would have a
tumultuous, boiling atmosphere, spitting out flares and huge chunks of
superhot gas. Instead, it hit a 50-year low in solar wind pressure, a
55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.
Right now, the sun is the dimmest it?s been in nearly a century,? said
Osgood.?In the mid-seventeenth century, there was a quiet spell
on the sun, known as the Maunder Minimum, which lasted 70 years and led
to a mini-Ice Age here on Earth,? Osgood explained. ?Right now, global
warming is a given to so many, it raises the question: Could another
minimum activity period on the sun counteract, in any way, the effects
of global warming???Hush, child! You?re not even supposed to
suggest that,? answered Osgood sarcastically. ?The only thing that can
change global warming is if we human beings?we Americans,
especially?completely change our ways and our way of life.?I?m
sure you?ll be hearing more about this solar dimming business, now that
the story is out. Remember, you heard it here first,? Osgood concluded.
