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by Rolf A. F. Witzsche (Author)
Numerous fields of evidence tell us that the next Ice Age is near. Most of the evidence was discovered in the 1990s and thereafter. Some evidence is measured in ice cores; some is measured in space, by satellites. Some measurements are also made on the ground in terms of measurements of the Earth's magnetic-pole drift observed in northern Canada. All of this is seen combined with high-energy physics experiments at a leading national laboratory, and is also explored in the small in static experiments. Against the background of these widely diverse types of evidence that have been recently discovered, the historic Little Ice Age in the 1600s, takes on a new dimension as a yardstick for measuring the future that by this evidence promises to be up to 40-times colder than the Little Ice Age had been. The evidence poses a challenge. Are we ready to respond? In the Little Ice Age between 10% and up to 30% of the populations in Europe had perished by starvation. The last Big Ice Age was evidently vastly harsher. Only 1-10 million people emerged from it alive. That's all we had after 2 million years of development. We want to do far better this time around; and we can, with large-scale technological infrastructures for our food supply. But will we create them? Will we get the job done in the 30 years that we still have left before the Ice Age starts anew? And how certain are we that the phase shift to the next glaciation period will begin in the 2050s? We have 58 items of evidence to support this as a possibility. But will we move with the evidence? It takes an independent researcher to brake the taboos that have kept mainstream cosmology imprisoned, increasingly, during the past century, even while what is regarded as taboo is known to be wrong. The Illustrated Science series is intended to open the scene beyond the threshold of accepted taboos, to where the actual physical evidence speaks for itself. The scope of the existential challenge that the Ice Age brings with it, takes astrophysics out of the academic domain and places it into the foreground as one of the most-critical issues of our time. The big Climate Change events that have already worldwide effects are mere fringe effects in the flow of the ever-changing cosmic dynamics. The big effect, when the Ice Age begins anew, promises to be caused by a dimmer and colder Sun with 70% less radiated energy. This defines our climate future. Sure, we can live with all that by creating new platforms for agriculture that are able to operate under Ice Age conditions. But will we do it? The task is enormous. Or will we fail ourselves on this front? We have no reason to allow us to fail. We have the materials and energy resources on hand to accomplish everything that is required for us to continue to live in an Ice Age World. But will we do it? The big question that never goes away, therefore, is; will we develop our inner resources as human beings sufficiently to get the job done, and to get it done in time? Or will we do nothing, ignore the challenge, and condemn our children and one-another to an agonizing death by starvation? That's the choice.
