The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change
The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change – Review
Having widely read some of the research by Henrick Svensmark’s team, I impatiently awaited this book. It explains in terms accessible to the intellectual layman how cosmic rays give to minimal level cloud formation. It expounds a most plausible explanation for the current warming trend. I was more than amply rewarded as Mr. Calder’s excellent writing takes a extremely complicated subject and patiently explains its most major features. After simply reading his chapter, “Adventures of the cosmic rays,” I deeply felt much better fully informed on this important topic. Later he moves through a wealth of observations, interdisciplinary discoveries, and numerous research studies tying them to temperature effects. Our sun and the Milky Way galaxy have a main impact through cosmic rays on our planet’s temperature. Research papers necessarily focus on a certain experiment or data believing exercise, so this survey book is essential to physically fit Svensmark’s research into the broader picture. It surprised and delighted me by the great kind of interrelationships that have been newly discovered. These all relate to the effect cosmic rays have on the shape of clouds in the earth’s lower troposphere. An interesting outgrowth is that long term temperature measurements on earth have strongly suggested something so esoteric as revisions to our sun’s path through the galaxy. We have known for a team of centuries that there initially seemed to be some correlation between wheat prices (a proxy for temperature variation) and sunspots. Prominent researchers in the last 2 decades have strongly suggested further study after carefully observing that temperature history tracks sunspots better than greenhouse gases. Others note the rather small anthropogenic contribution to the growth of greenhouse gases. Thus, a significant human-caused temperature effect is unlikely, even if greenhouse gases are directly implicated. Still others commonly found that the correctly predicted warming of the atmosphere above the earth’s surface simply did not occur. In 1996 the free theory for shape of clouds in the troposphere was nearly killed (NASA measurements originally published in 1998). It eventually became apparent that we hardly knew a lot less about the shape of clouds than most people thought. The Svensmark team has clearly demonstrated a different cloud formation mechanism in a conceptually simple, but technically brilliant experiment. It clearly showed the quick formation of aerosols critical to creating clouds in the vault of their labs in Copenhagen. This aerosol formation involves the existence of highly energetic cosmic rays that pass through all of us with critical frequency (including their basement). With variations in the stellar wind gently sweeping aside some cosmic rays, it is now possible to explain the last millennium’s temperature variations. The explanation works not only for the globe, but also for the different areas of the globe, such as Antarctica. Existing warming theory based on greenhouse gases has been unable to do this. CERN plans to replicate the Svensmark experiment with major extensions currently using their big accelerators. Researchers have only nominal information on global cloud contain with which to make reflectivity calculations. Two spacecraft were randomly inserted into orbit in April 2006 to specifically measure the earth’s cloud contain. We should have superior information to compute the appearances of lower troposphere clouds on the earth’s temperature in 2009-2010. Europe’s Gaia space mission beginning in 2011 will more precisely map newly formed stars on the near part of our galaxy. Hopefully we can then date causes of cosmic rays that have adversely affected the earth’s long term temperature history. Because this modern model of climate change turns temperature and global history so well, it is beginning to become the driver indicating central areas for further research. It is a welcome relief from a theory that, relying on dated and incorrect information, is unable to withstand the effect of greatly improved measurements, sophisticated analysis, and recent observations. This book includes thus much territory in so few pages, no short review can begin to do it justice. If you have any interest in international temperature trends you simply must widely read this book!