Baby it's cold outside ...

Like many people of my acquaintance, I had been following the global warming saga in a vague sort of way, feeling sorry for drowning polar bears, malaria sufferers in Newcastle and other victims of the ever-spiralling temperature. However, a slow realisation eventually dawned upon me that there was a distinct discrepancy between what I was reading, and what I was experiencing. Where are those long, hot summers of yesteryear? Where are all those lovely, lazy anticyclones that established themselves over Europe in May, and didn't move away until September? Why did I wake up shivering on this June morning only a day away from the Summer Solstice? It didn't quite match up to the 'Apocalypse Now!' image being peddled by the media about looking for the high ground asap, and taking our swimming gear with us. Then I thought some more. Surely the human race's untidy energy habits couldn't have affected the climate behaviour of the whole planet as much as that, and in such a relatively short time? Just as that thought came to me, I read a book called 'The Chilling Stars' in which a Danish climatologist called Svensmark wrote that climate fluctuations had a great deal more to do with what the sun was doing to the incoming cosmic radiation, and in particular, the particles called muons. In short, when the sun's activity is low (as it currently is) the solar wind drops, and more cosmic radiation reaches our planet, which has an effect on the amount of cloud that is formed, particularly the cloud at low level. As I look out of the window here in the UK, I see a layer of stratocumulus that is completely blocking out the sun, which of course has an effect on the temperature. So, what we are currently seeing is global cooling rather than global warming. But could all those high-powered experts be wrong? Just as I had reached that point, I read Christopher Booker's book 'The Real Global Warming Disaster' which claims that the whole Global Warming thing, together with carbon credits and other such scams is completely bogus, totally unscientific and will lead to worldwide economic disaster if present policies continue. It's very compelling, so read it if you can get hold of it. It certainly makes sense to me.