This is Why We Can’t Have an Honest Discussion on Climate Change…
Posted by chrismacFeb 10
I just don’t understand the thinking here.
Scientists to launch solar activity satellite
There’s no way to predict space weather. Officials hope the Solar Dynamics Observatory can provide information to help change that.
“This is the most advanced spacecraft we’ve ever designed to study the sun and its dynamic behavior,” Fisher said. The sun, he said, “has this trick of converting magnetic energy into other kinds of energy that can affect the Earth.”“I believe we’re up to the point now where we can probably predict when something like this is more or less likely and you can at least take precautions,” Fisher said about solar weather. A warning system, for example, could help power grid operators avoid an outage by taking some of the grid’s load off or finding alternative configurations.
The sun’s effect wasn’t an issue for the Earth until the technological advances in electronics over the last hundred years, he said.
The sun’s effects weren’t an issue for the Earth until the last 100 years?? Are you serious? The Sun provides 99% of the Earths energy, and that is only a fraction of it’s output. How can you say that the sun has no effect except on electronics?
There is a serious disconnect here folks. They admit they know little to nothing about the sun:
The observatory is “going to give us good awareness of the dynamics of the sun, and we’re going to be able to make estimates on when we should take precautions with our satellites or with airline operations or with Department of Defense systems,” Fisher said. “We have an increasing pressure on science to try and predict what’s going to happen on the sun, and that’s the scientific bent of this (SDO) satellite, is to try to get a handle on it.”
and;
“Space weather forecasting is in its infancy … just like hurricane forecasting was years ago,” according to an article on NASA’s Web site by Liz Citrin, SDO project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland,
Yet they make definitive statements, The sun’s effect wasn’t an issue for the Earth until the technological advances in electronics over the last hundred years, he said., with no empirical data to support it.
How can you have a serious discussion on climate change with this kind of attitude?
Tags:Climate Change,earth,NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,Solar Dynamics Observatory,sun activity
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2 comments
Comment by Jac on May 2, 2010 at 4:29 pm
RE: “The sun’s effect wasn’t an issue for the Earth until the technological advances in electronics over the last hundred years, he said.,”
quote: “with no empirical data to support it.”
Interesting article I do recall an incident with Canada’s power grid collapsing back in the late 80’s or early 90’s and investigators found that it was the solar storm that took place at the time.
So I guess this is the proof of solar wind activity influencing electronics that NASA and other international space and government agencies utilize.
It makes you wonder though if NASA and others is so concerned about the effects of the sun storms on electrical equipment on Earth, why don’t they just licence out their patents for radiation hardened chips that they utilize on their spacecraft?
This would pretty much eradicate the concerns that wall street’s computational equipment would burnout or the mobile communications grid would seize up though it seems to be an issue mainly with the polar nations at the magnetic apex’s where most of the ionizing radiation enters.
Personally I think there are more urgent environmental issues that NASA should tackle, mainly pollution monitoring of in the Earth atmospheres and better preventive ways to simulate the effects of that pollution.
Comment by chrismac on May 4, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Good thoughts Jac, thanks for the comment. I guess my concern here was to the proposition that the Sun hasn’t affected the earth until electronics came into being. Of course if NASA is speaking only to the effects the Sun has only on our society through electronics then it makes sense.
I agree that we need to monitoring environmental impacts more closely (Gulf oil spill anyone) which has much more of an impact on our daily lives than some phantom, non existent AGW.