Magic Statistics

My friend Iain Benson, executive director of the Centre for Cultural Renewal is speaking next weekend in Camrose and Calgary, Alberta, under the auspices of the Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life.  His topic will be “Living Together With Disagreement: Pluralism, the Secular and the Fair Treatment of Beliefs in Canada Today".

On Saturday, 17 February at 7:30 pm, he will speak at Faith & Life Centre Chapel, Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta, Camrose.  On Sunday, 18 February at 3:00 pm, he will speak at Christ Church Anglican Parish, Calgary.  Admission at both talks will cost $10 or a donation.

I met Iain in Vancouver through our mutual association with Regent College.  One of the most stimulating thinkers I’ve ever known, he has a wide range of interests, including theology, natural law, constitutional law, and moral philosophy.  He’s also an avid student of G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis.

The Centre for Cultural Renewal has a wealth of material at its website, including LexView, offering commentary on important Canadian court decisions, CentreBlog where Iain blogs a few times a month, articles, and discussion papers.

(Sadly, I will not be able to attend next week’s talks.)

Nigel Calder, former editor of New Scientist, points out some climate facts embarrassing to the notion that greenhouse gas emissions are forcing climate change.

[D]id anyone tell you that in east Antarctica the Adélie penguins and Cape petrels are turning up at their spring nesting sites around nine days later than they did 50 years ago? While sea-ice has diminished in the Arctic since 1978, it has grown by 8% in the Southern Ocean.

So one awkward question you can ask, when you’re forking out those extra taxes for climate change, is “Why is east Antarctica getting colder?” It makes no sense at all if carbon dioxide is driving global warming.

Mr Calder is co-author with Henrik Svensmark of the forthcoming book, The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change.

Previous related posts:

• Evidence that climate change driven by solar activity
• Global warming bypasses my part of the globe
• CO2 emissions rising faster than ever
• Has global warming been oversold?

Proponents of the notion that global warming is caused by greenhouse gas emissions attach little importance to solar activity, maintaining that variations in the sun’s brightness are too small to explain climate changes.  Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark has found evidence challenging the conventional wisdom.  He argues that the sun has a powerful influence on climate because its magnetic field affects the flow of cosmic rays toward the earth.

Henrik Svensmark, a weather scientist at the Danish National Space Centre who led the team behind the research, believes that the planet is experiencing a natural period of low cloud cover due to fewer cosmic rays entering the atmosphere.
. . .
Mr Svensmark claims that the number of cosmic rays hitting the Earth changes with the magnetic activity around the Sun. During high periods of activity, fewer cosmic rays hit the Earth and so there are less clouds formed, resulting in warming.

Low activity causes more clouds and cools the Earth.

He said: "Evidence from ice cores show this happening long into the past. We have the highest solar activity we have had in at least 1,000 years.

His findings have been published in scientific journals during the past five years, and a full account of his experiments is soon to be published in his book, The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change (co-authored by Nigel Calder).

A large experiment using a particle accelerator to test this new theory is now being prepared by an international team of 60 scientists in Geneva.  They hope to replicate the effect of cosmic rays striking the earth’s atmosphere to see what effect radiation has on cloud cover.

Previous related posts:

• CO2 emissions rising faster than ever
• Global warming on other globes
• Global-warming scare-mongers rule
• Kyoto is pointless: The globe has stopped warming
• Martian polar ice caps shrinking

The collect for today, Sexagesima, or the Second Sunday Before Lent, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

O Lord, God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do; Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 11:19-31
The Gospel: St Luke 8:4-15