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may accidentally tear open the fragile cocoon of human and plane- tary evolution. Dire consequences could be as devastating as the failure of an individual's pacemaker. The forces of chaos could be let loose, doing irreversible damage. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) puts this technology for environmental modification in the hands of the military command—a frightening prospect. Because of national security mandates, we can't be sure just what they are doing with it, and conjecture is running rampant. Hopefully, it can be disclosed before it is too late for all of us. may accidentally tear open the fragile cocoon of human and plane- _in Nature in 2002 showed that the deep current is freshening by as tary evolution. Dire consequences could be as devastating as the much as 20%; this is not a good sign. Melting and calving glaciers failure of an individual's pacemaker. The forces of chaos could be could hasten the process. let loose, doing irreversible damage. Fossil evidence demonstrates collapse can happen within a The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) puts this technology for decade and persist for centuries. This new paradigm of rapid cli- environmental modification in the hands of the military mate change is now broadly accepted worldwide. Such triggers can command—a frightening prospect. Because of national security create spikes of around 10°C in about a decade, followed by mandates, we can't be sure just what they are doing with it, and plateaus of about 20 years, then dramatic cooling of around 20°C in conjecture is running rampant. Hopefully, it can be disclosed around two decades. before it is too late for all of us. In the last 8,000 to 10,000 years, these pulsations have been milder, but solar instability, axis tilt and current declines could pre- PERTURBATIONS AFFECTING EARTH'S CLIMATE cipitate their return. So could human tampering with the weather To comprehend just how delicately balanced our fragile planet is, through energy beam technology and weaponry. we need to consider the astrophysics converging on our region of A rise in temperature of only 34°C could trigger a rise in sea space. We have to look into deep time and space. Then it becomes _level of 20 metres within one decade! Further warming and ice- easier to see how the slightest perturbations to our atmosphere can _—‘melt creates a cycle where temperatures could spike 810°C in 30 cause dramatic rifts in the course of our geophysical destiny. years. Then ocean currents would shift and new heat/cold patterns Many complex forces are already impact- emerge. New shallow seas would decrease ing the Earth, particularly our global weather land mass; agricultural plains would be flood- patterns. Looking at the broadest scale, there ed, diminishing food-growing areas further. is a galactic ice age threat from supernovas, Approximately 30-40% of the land would be whose cosmic rays create clouds when they Many complex forces lost and mankind would be displaced from hit our atmosphere, cooling it. Also, the solar 4 ; inundated valleys on all continents. Trade, system is passing through the densest portion are already impacting Fommerce and ae an weude of the Milky Way Galaxy, a roughly 30-mil- i looded out. In , the predicted a lion-year cycle. ° . oy the Earth, particularly rise of 3-9°F over the next hundred years. This dense molecular cloud and fluctuating our global weather Tropical oceans have warmed 1.8-2.6°F over galactic tidal forces of distant matter can the past 100 years, and glaciers are melting in destabilise comets in the Oort cloud and send patterns... many locations worldwide. them hurtling toward the planets and Sun. _ Research has also suggested that the Sun This rain of small comets, called "impact itself has been in a heating cycle and may be a surges", is influential in the pulsing and Also, the solar system significant component in global warming (1°F per year since 1880). Limited results advancing of ice sheets over millennia . . and implicated in mass extinctions. It IS passing through suggested the Sun produced 0.05% affects the oceanic heat pump (with a the densest portion of 1o70 racnation per detade since the Tate rain of fresh water) that acts as a global the Milky Way Galaxy. / ‘. e uns allege increasing ocean conveyor. b output means stronger solar winds _ This salt pump moves warm water a roughly sweeping across the Earth's upper into northern climes, like the US eastern atmosphere, exciting and ionising it seaboard and Europe, keeping them 30-million-year we charged particles. al warmine habitable while cooling the tropics. Its | ous! : y hal tt eg ol al warming in couiarse would mean that warm, salty cycle. ve las century canbe auributed to the ulf Stream water would no longer un. The hotter it burns, the more cos- move north, thus facilitating another Ice mic rays it deflects. Sustained over Age. decades, it could lead to dramatic cli- The motor of evolution is not natural mate fluctuation—as has happened in selection, but climate and ice. Ice the historical past with events such as sheets have pulsed 30 times in the last —_ the Little Ice Age between the 13th cen- 2.5 million years since the isthmus of Panama formed, blocking _ tury and the most frigid 17th century. ; tropical circulation between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This The output of the Sun fluctuates in an 11-year cycle, which had diverted warm water north, where it began falling as snow and two peaks in 2000 and 2002. Solar minimum is about three years became built into glaciers. These glaciers ebb and flow depending away (the solar minimum time period doesn't necessarily equal the on the wobble of the Earth. solar maximum period). These changes in the solar cycle cause Dryness created by these glacial cycles forced the African tropi- short-term changes on Earth. At solar maximum, an increase in cal rainforests to die back, creating savannahs, and our progenitors cloud cover by as much as 2% over the USA was reported. When left the forest and modern humans, reliant on intelligence for sur- bombarded with maximum solar output, the temperature of the thin vival, emerged. Intelligence and versatility became our hallmarks | upper atmosphere doubles. It swells and puffs up further into because we had to learn to survive in volatile climates. Only about —_space, up to and beyond the orbit of the International Space Station. 1,000 generations have passed since the Ice Age in Europe, when It can even increase drag on the station, necessitating frequent human population was incredibly low due to climatic stress. boosts from space shuttles to maintain momentum. All research indicates Earth's climate system has sensitive thresh- Recently it has become easier and more accurate to measure solar olds, which when crossed will push the system from one stable activity outside of the Earth's atmosphere. We now measure total operating mode into another. Oceanic systems control weather on _ solar energy at all wavelengths, with the resultant measurement land, as El Nifio has shown. It is also revealed in deep-sea sedi- called Total Solar Irradiance (TSI). The jury is out on whether ments, ice-core sheets and the fossil record. They all show the con- _-current indications of increases are a long-term trend or a brief veyor has shut down in the past. It has been called the "Achilles aberration. heel" of our climatic system. The pump is in decline, according to In a recent study, data was analysed from six satellites orbiting researchers, and could signal an abrupt and dramatic shift. A paper Earth at different times over the 24 years. Richard Willson, a Many complex forces are already impacting the Earth, particularly our global weather a a patterns... is passing through the densest portion of the Milky Way Galaxy, a roughly 30- million- -year cycle. 18 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2003 Also, the solar system www.nexusmagazine.com