What is global cooling. Global warming

Not so long ago, at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in Wales, a report was presented that the Earth is threatened by a small ice age, or, in other words, global cooling. According to the chronicles, this phenomenon took place between middle of the XVII and the second quarter of the 18th century. Eyewitnesses talked about frozen water in the Thames, in the Danube, about a long and not single glaciation of the Moscow River during the year.

However, such a situation seemed absurd to the majority of the world scientific community. Many researchers consider the drop in temperatures then, three hundred years ago, just an isolated case, thinking about global warming. However, the theory has not received a complete refutation, so it deserves both attention and consideration.

The theory of global cooling assumes a gradual process of cooling the surface of the planet, as a result of which the covering of vast surfaces with snow. Its snow-white layer will reflect the light of the sun, which will lead to a decrease in temperatures on the earth. The phenomenon of cooling in the 17th century was studied by the British Maunder. He associated it with a certain degree of sunspot activity. Now this phenomenon is called the Maunder minimum.

Today, research confirms that sunspot activity is a cyclical phenomenon. And, since our luminary affects many aspects of life on earth, climate change is no exception.

Cooling in the global sense: what awaits us?

By the middle of the 21st century, the axis along which the Earth rotates around its luminary will shift somewhat, and temperatures will begin to drop, as some scientists say. In the equatorial zone, this will not be so noticeable, but closer to the poles, climate change will become significant. In general, the temperature will drop by several degrees. But this will lead to significant consequences:

• rivers will freeze that did not freeze in winter period, colder ones will be covered with ice for a long time;
• the zone of agriculture will shift to the south;
• flora and fauna will change;
• it will be difficult to extract oil and natural gas;
• the movement of ice in the ocean will become more intense, which will hinder navigation.

Researchers who adhere to this theory believe that it is important to start thinking about the cold period now, before the warming is over. When the climate changes, it will be too late to do many things, and preparation will lose its meaning. However, such actions should be taken state level, consistent with other countries and world organizations.

Ice ages in the history of our planet

Geological studies have led to the conclusion that global cooling and climate change have overtaken the inhabitants of the Earth for about fifteen times. The average temperature of the waters of the World Ocean dropped so much that a significant part of it was covered with ice, and even in tropical waters the cold was felt.

Most scientists are now sounding the alarm about rising temperatures and melting glaciers that are happening everywhere. The reason for this is man-made human activities that affect climate change. However, there is a fairly authoritative opinion, according to which both warming and cooling can occur simultaneously.

And yet, before talking about the likelihood of such a phenomenon as global cooling, it is worth identifying a process that is obvious, occurs constantly and leads to serious consequences - this is global warming.

What is global warming?

Due to the technical activity of man, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By itself, it does not increase the temperature, and if it does, it is very insignificant. However, it contributes to an increase in the moisture content in the air. And, since more than 70% of our planet is covered with water, there is much more of it than before. Mixing with carbon dioxide, it helps form the so-called greenhouse gas, which, in turn, raises the temperature on the earth.

Result this phenomenon is the rise in the level of the World Ocean and the melting of glaciers. And although the average temperature rises by about half a degree in fifty years, this is a significant indicator.

What human activity is causing climate change?

• The work of industrial enterprises that absorb oxygen. Installing treatment facilities is expensive and unprofitable, therefore, in many countries, especially developing ones, these measures are neglected.
• Cars whose exhaust gases not only poison the air and adversely affect health, but also actively emit carbon dioxide.
• Reducing the area of ​​forests. The growth of mankind and the constant need for wood require cutting down massifs. No plantings can block the stream on which this case is set. And the fewer trees on the planet, the less they can process carbon dioxide.

How are warming and cooling related?

Such a global phenomenon as climate depends on a huge number of factors. In particular, one cannot say that an increase in the mass of carbon dioxide and moisture in the atmosphere generally only increases the air temperature. Accumulations of raindrops, clouds, on the contrary, protect the earth from solar radiation, from ultraviolet rays, lowering the temperature. Everyone feels a certain coolness when the sun is obscured by clouds.

We can say that cooling in the global sense is a natural process that is cyclical and takes place with a certain periodicity. For example, the Japanese Mototaka Nakamura, studying the temperature changes in the Greenland Sea, came to the conclusion that the 70-year period of water warming in the North Atlantic is now coming to an end. It will be replaced, respectively, by a cold snap.

Global warming is basically a process caused by human activities that do not protect their planet. Therefore, with a decrease in temperature - a natural cyclic process - it correlates. Another thing is that such global climate changes will provoke unfavorable weather conditions, an increase in the amount of precipitation and, perhaps, natural disasters.

How to fight for a favorable climate?

To reduce the risk of various disasters, diseases and death of plants and animals, to keep the water and air on the planet clean and the climate favorable, it is worth fighting the warming caused by man-made causes. Today, the UN and governments of many countries are discussing the issue of cleansing environment, saving oxygen for all inhabitants of the earth. A number of measures are being developed that are relevant to this problem. However, their practical implementation is extremely slow for political and economic reasons. Many countries, pursuing a certain benefit, deliberately evade the implementation of measures aimed at improving the environmental situation. Today, in particular:

• It is necessary to introduce strict restrictions on the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by various types of power plants. This should concern both old structures (the development and implementation of cleaning technologies is needed) and facilities under construction.
• We need to use more solar and wind energy. Of course, this possibility is not available in all regions, but even a small reduction in harmful emissions will be beneficial to the entire Earth and those who live on it.
• It would seem that global warming world change climate change are problems that cannot be solved locally. But if most people consciously switch to sustainable modes of transport, such as bicycles, the air will become cleaner and the weather better. Therefore, in many developed countries, movement in this way is actively encouraged: both for health and for nature, it is infinitely useful.
• Plants and factories should, along with the main mechanisms, introduce special treatment facilities. After all, they account for such a huge amount of harmful emissions that adversely affect the state of the earth, water, air, climate in general, that it is simply necessary to think about it.

Global warming and lowering of temperatures are slow processes and, at first glance, not so noticeable. But, if you do not think about them in time, you can become witnesses of such global climate change on the entire planet, which will affect the life of every person. The responsibility of each of us, of all states without exception, for a common home is the recipe for a prosperous life on Earth.

There is evidence that the area of ​​ice cover suddenly began to increase in the Arctic, and the activity of the Sun dropped to a century-old minimum.

Nature turns on the refrigerator, according to the Rossiyskaya Gazeta website. The European satellite CryoSat recorded that the mass of the ice cover was 9 thousand cubic kilometers last autumn, which is much more than previously observed. And the hope for the growth of ice in the Arctic appeared in the summer, when the area of ​​ice cover reached 5.1 million square kilometers. This is 1.5 times higher than in 2012.

It was the Arctic that became one of the main arguments of the supporters of global warming, recalls " Russian newspaper". The area of ​​multi-year ice over the past ten years in the Arctic has decreased by about 40%. The glaciers that emerged 5,500 years ago “shrink” by 90% during the 20th century. And then the CryoSat satellite brought unexpected good news: the Arctic is "coming" to its senses.

The second blow to the theory of global warming was dealt by the Sun. Its activity has reached a minimum in 100 years. This could be the beginning of a new ice age. British professor Richard Harrison argues that the Earth again needs to prepare for the so-called Maunder minimum - the period from 1645 to 1715, when a long decline in solar activity led to the "Little Ice Age", the coldest in more than 500 years since the XIV century.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov, an employee of the Pulkovo Observatory, also speaks about global cooling. According to him, the activity of our luminary is declining. This can cause a serious drop in the temperature of the World Ocean and, as a result, lead to global cooling on the planet. A similar opinion has just been expressed by the Japanese oceanologist Mototaka Nakamura. According to his estimates, it will get colder so much that the ice cover can spread almost to the current tropics, which, by the way, has already happened in the history of the Earth. And in total, 15 ice ages of 10 thousand years each were recorded on the planet. Now we live at the end of another warm interglacial period, and we must prepare for the entry into the next ice age.

However, such statements by a number of scientists do not mean at all that a final verdict has been issued. Heated disputes between supporters and opponents of the theory of global warming are going on with varying degrees of success. At first, the globalists clearly took the lead, pointing out that over the past 100 years there has been an unprecedented increase in the average temperature on Earth. This means that greenhouse gases, the emission of which is associated with human activities, are to blame for everything. The result of the disputes was the famous Kyoto Protocol, which requires countries to drastically limit the emission of harmful gases.

Opponents of this scenario, however, found counterarguments and removed the blame for global warming from man. The most interesting data, covering 750,000 years, was obtained from the study of Antarctic ice. It turned out that the three previous warm interglacials (and we are now living in the same period) were much warmer than the current one, that is, the average temperature on Earth in modern era 1.5-2 degrees lower than it was in those days. But at that time, man had not yet appeared on Earth, and there was no one to blame for natural disasters. This means that nothing extraordinary is happening in nature now, all the current “phenomena” have already happened, and without human participation.

And, finally, the main argument of the opponents of the anthropogenic theory. According to Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kotlyakov, the warmest peak of the current interglacial period was already passed 5-6 thousand years ago. Now the global temperature on Earth continues to decrease, that is, things are moving towards cooling. True, it will not come tomorrow. The movement will be very slow, stretching over many hundreds and thousands of years. Opponents of the Kyoto Protocol believe that humans should be acquitted of the charge of global warming. The reason is not him, but natural cycles. The reasons for such global climate fluctuations are not yet clear to scientists.

Academician Kotlyakov also believes that periods of excruciating heat, which now occur almost annually, fit into the overall picture. With a general trend towards cooling, short-term bursts of temperature increase are possible. For example, over the last millennium, the warmest previous epoch falls on the 10th-11th centuries AD. e., when the Vikings sailed far to the North and discovered Greenland. And then, in the XVI and XVII centuries, the Little Ice Age began. Europe had such cold winters that in many parts of Europe that are considered warm today, people skated on frozen canals.

Professor of the Department of World Economy V.A.Gorbanev - about the situation around climate change.

The Paris Agreement is based on the well-known alarmist reports of the International Panel on Climate Change, which draws an unambiguous conclusion about global warming, and anthropogenic activities and, above all, energy are to blame for this warming.

Most Russian scientists do not share such a one-sided approach. Indeed, many prominent scientists in Russia, but especially abroad, support this point of view, relying on mathematical models. However, there are also many scientists who do not support this point of view, but their opinion is not heard or does not want to hear.

First, let's talk about the causes of climate change. If you look at the course of changes in atmospheric temperature, starting from the Precambrian era, then periods of cooling and warming are clearly traced. It is difficult to explain the reason for such fluctuations. According to Russian scientists, the most likely cause is the variability of the climate system.

The influence of external factors is unlikely. For example, the impact of greenhouse gases could not be significant, because their concentration remained fairly stable, and fluctuations in carbon dioxide concentration did not coincide with temperature fluctuations. During the interglacial period (110-140 thousand years ago), the average temperature at the Earth's surface was 2°C higher than the present one, and the concentration of carbon dioxide is much lower, so the discrepancy between the modern relatively low temperature and very high level concentration of carbon dioxide.

At the same time, the internal variability of the climate system may well have caused significant temperature fluctuations. In particular, a change in the regime of the ice sheet, which can either desalinate or, conversely, increase salinity sea ​​waters, directly affects the change in the density of water masses. As a result, the geography and intensity of the global water circulation in the World Ocean is changing, which in turn has a powerful effect on the circulation and thermal regime of the atmosphere. A similar effect is exerted by energy-active zones in the World Ocean, which were studied by G.I. Marchuk. According to Murmansk experts, in last years increased ice cover around the Kola Peninsula, i.e. cooling is observed. It is known that there is a cooling in Antarctica. Those. climate change is happening, but
in which direction, while it is difficult to understand.

Now regarding the role of man in this change. Professor G.M. Kruchenitsky in his report “On the fundamental scientific failure of the concept of anthropogenic global warming” spoke very simply: “Anthropogenic global warming is not an erroneous hypothesis. This is banter!” The author emphasizes that climate models have three classes of difficulties, each of which would be enough to permanently close all so-called "climate modeling". All models use the Navier-Stokes equation in a rotating coordinate system. This equation, designed to describe the flow of a liquid, includes the phenomenon of turbulence when the Reynolds number is exceeded. And if there is turbulence, then there is no single solution. And if there is no single solution, then you can not apply numerical methods. But only they are used in climate modeling.

This reason for the wave is sufficient for the question of the reliability of model predictions of climate not to be discussed.

Almost 20 years ago, the Russian scientist-geographer Corr. RAS Andrey Kapitsa said that global warming does not exist, it is a myth. On the contrary, since 1975 there has been a slow cooling. Another myth the scientist called the influence of man and his activities on climate change. The climate on our planet is changing regardless of our desire or unwillingness. Moreover, carbon dioxide emissions, which are considered the main cause of the "greenhouse effect", are precisely the result of natural natural warming, which has now been replaced by an equally natural cycle of "cooling" of the planet. This happens, approximately, according to the following scheme: the climate changes cyclically from ice ages to warming, but at the same time, when the World Ocean, the main repository of carbon dioxide, warms up even by half a degree, a powerful emission into the atmosphere occurs. When the temperature changes towards minus, the concentration of carbon dioxide begins to decrease. In addition, its content is also affected by the activity of volcanoes and forest fires. But not industrial human activity, concludes Kapitsa.

Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences come to the final conclusion: the opinion of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, expressed at the request of the President of Russia, about the complete absence of scientific justification for the anthropogenic origin of the observed climate changes, is convincingly confirmed at the level of elementary estimates!

This is about science. Now a few words about the Paris Agreement.

At the opening of the talks in Paris, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that “regardless of the outcome of the international climate conference, and even if it fails, Russia will still reduce harmful emissions by 2030 to 70% of basic level 1990

The Minister of Ecology of Russia noted that Russia is in the top four in terms of emissions, but it is far behind China, the United States, and India, which are the main "pollutants" of the planet. At the same time, as noted, we have not ratified the Agreement. We are going to do this in 2019. However, the business community urged Vladimir Putin not to approve the document. The RSPP said that the implementation of the provisions would have a negative impact on economic growth. The head of the Union, Alexander Shokhin, noted that Russia had already exceeded its obligation to bring emissions into the atmosphere below the level of 1990. The volume of greenhouse gas emissions in Russia decreased by 30% compared to 1990. And if we take into account the natural absorption capacity of Russian forests, then we can talk about a decrease in emissions over a quarter of a century by almost 46%.

The United States, as you know, withdrew from the Agreement. It, according to Trump, is beneficial to other countries, but not to the United States, since it imposes a "draconian financial and economic burden" on the country. The fulfillment of US obligations will lead to the loss of 2.7 million jobs by 2025, including 440 thousand jobs in industry. We, as I just said, have already fulfilled the terms of the Agreement. Therefore, Russia does not face such problems now. But we need to look ahead: now they are not, but in the future, when the economy grows at a faster pace, such problems will certainly arise.

Therefore, in conclusion, I would like to emphasize that from both scientific and practical points of view, the provisions of the Paris Agreement do not look convincing enough, and, in our opinion, we need to wait for its ratification. First of all, it is necessary to direct the efforts of scientists to solve the problem: in this moment warming or cooling is coming and what is the role of man in this process. When these problems are resolved by the international scientific community in the form of consensus, then it will be possible to create appropriate adequate international mechanisms and make the necessary decisions.

At the very end of spring, a terrible natural disaster struck Moscow, which the inhabitants of the capital are unlikely to forget in the next few decades.

On May 29, squally winds knocked down several thousand trees and caused the death of eleven people.

Photo: instagram.com / allexicher

The hurricane damaged 140 apartment buildings and 1,500 cars.

Photo: twitter.com

As it turned out later, when everyone recovered a little, the May rampant bad weather became the most cruel and destructive natural disaster in Moscow in more than a hundred years - only the tornado of 1904 was worse.

Before the Russians had time to recover from the Moscow storm, the hurricane hit a number of other regions of the country. Just a week later, on June 6 in: due to heavy rain, they overflowed the banks of the river, flooded the streets and destroyed roads and bridges. At the same time, a large hail fell in the Trans-Baikal Territory, and in the Komi Republic, melt water and heavy rain simply washed away the roads from the face of the region.

Photo: twitter.com

The worst thing is that weather forecasters promise that this is only the beginning of disasters. Hurricanes, according to forecasts, are approaching all of Central Russia. At the beginning of summer, on June 2, St. Petersburg residents, already accustomed to bad weather, suffered another stress: in the afternoon the temperature dropped to 4 degrees, and hail fell from the sky. Such cold weather in the northern capital was the last time only in 1930. And then, suddenly, after such an "extreme" the thermometer jumped in St. Petersburg right up to +20.

Photo: flickr.com

While the Russians are trying to hide from the ice hail, the Japanese are dying from the wild heat. According to Japanese media reports, over the past week, more than a thousand Japanese citizens ended up in the hospital with the same diagnosis - heatstroke. It has been hot in the Land of the Rising Sun for several weeks now: thermometers show well over 40 degrees. After such an "inferno", employees of the fire service of Japan tell reporters, seventeen people will remain in the hospital for long-term treatment.

« The earth will fly into the heavenly axis! »

So what is really going on in the world? Global warming or cooling? Or is it just the agony of a mad planet that cannot get rid of the “plague” of humanity? In recent decades, the theory of global warming has been the most widespread. It seems to be unconditionally confirmed by the fact that glaciers are melting at a tremendous speed in the world. They are even called the “litmus test” of climate change: after all, we do not notice small fluctuations in the average annual temperature, but the volume of melted ice caps can be easily measured and even simply seen with the naked eye.

According to the forecasts of supporters of the theory of global warming, in the next 80 years, 90% of the glaciers in the European Alps may disappear. In addition, due to melting arctic ice the level of the world's seas may also rise sharply. And this is fraught with flooding of some countries and serious climate change on the planet.

Photo: flickr.com

Researchers see the cause of global warming in human activities. They point out that carbon dioxide, methane and other by-products of human agricultural and industrial activities create a greenhouse effect, due to which the temperature on the planet rises, and ice flows into the ocean in streams.

"Winter Is Coming!"

At the same time, now there are more and more supporters of the theory of global cooling. The fact that we are waiting for the cold in the near future, and not excessive anthropogenic heat, is proved by scientists from the British University of Northumbria.

Global cooling, according to their version, will come as a result of the influence of external rather than internal factors on the Earth's climate. The reason will be a decrease in the activity of our luminary - the Sun. British scientists, using mathematical calculations, modeled the processes occurring on the Sun and made a forecast for the coming years.

Photo: flickr.com

According to the predictions of scientists, in 2022 a serious drop in temperature awaits us. At this time, the Earth will move away from its star by maximum distance which will lead to cooling. In five years, Northumbria University scientists say, our planet will enter the Maunder Minimum, and earthlings will have to stock up on down jackets and heaters in full.

The last time the decline in temperature of such a level as predicted by British researchers was observed in Europe in the 17th century. The most interesting thing is that this theory does not at all contradict the latest observations of meteorologists: its supporters attribute the general increase in temperature and the melting of glaciers to the fact that earlier the Earth was at a minimum distance from the Sun.

Photo: flickr.com

The fact that humanity does not have such a strong influence on the global climate is also very appealing to the controversial new US leader Donald Trump. In early summer, he announced his country's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. This agreement imposes restrictions on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by them into the atmosphere on the countries that signed it. Trump said that this agreement is holding back the growth of industry in the States, and this, in turn, is taking away jobs from the people. But if the British scientists are right, then the US leader has nothing to worry about - the "Maunder minimum" can level the damage that the policy of the industrial magnate can cause to the planet.

When the planet is torn apart

Interestingly, the battle between the supporters of global warming and global cooling can easily end in an equally global draw. There is a theory according to which periods of excessive heat are replaced by phases of cold in waves. This idea is promoted by the Russian scientist, head of the department of the Siberian Regional Research Hydrometeorological Institute Nikolai Zavalishin.

According to the meteorologist, short periods of global increase and decrease in temperature have happened before. In general, they are cyclical. As the scientist noted, each such cycle includes one decade of rapid global warming, followed by 40 to 50 years of cooling.

Photo: flickr.com

Studies conducted by a Siberian meteorologist show that the past two years - 2015 and 2016 - were the warmest in the history of meteorological observations. In the next five to six years, warming should continue, the scientist believes. The average air temperature, as a result, will increase by 1.1 degrees.

But soon, says Nikolai Zavalishin, the warming should end. Here the Siberian is in solidarity with the British: a phase of global cooling is coming. So, according to the Siberian theory, we still have an endless winter ahead of us.

Global warming is a myth

While most scientists place the blame for climate change on mankind, a researcher from the Siberian Institute believes that human activity does not bother the planet too much. The cycles of moderate warming and cooling, according to this version, replace each other regardless of human activity, growth in volumes Agriculture and the scope of the industry. At the same time, fluctuations in the average temperature on the planet are closely related to the earth's albedo - the reflectivity of our planet.

Photo: flickr.com

The fact is that we receive all the energy, in fact, from one main source - from the Sun. However, part of this energy is reflected from the earth's surface and goes into space irrevocably. The other part is absorbed and provides all life on Earth with a happy and productive life.

But different earth's surfaces absorb and reflect light in different ways. Pure snow is able to kick back into space up to 95% of solar radiation, but fat black earth absorbs the same amount.

The more snow and glaciers on the planet, the more sunlight reflected. Now the glaciers on Earth are in a phase of active melting. However, according to Zavalishin's theory, there is no need to worry about them - when a half-century period of cooling sets in, the balance will be restored.

Who among the scientists is still worth believing? There are quite a few versions of the development of events. Some researchers even promise that in thirty years, in 2047, humanity is waiting for an apocalypse, the cause of which will be unprecedented activity of the Sun. So far, we have only one way to verify this statement - personally live and see.

Margarita Zvyagintseva

We have already written on the site about the problem of global warming and the role of human activity in this process. Now the impact of industrial development on the average annual temperature on Earth, primarily associated with a sharp increase in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, has already been confirmed by world climate congresses. However, there is another trend in the planet's climate change, which scientists also often talk about - this is the trend of global cooling.

Geologists and paleontologists who analyze climate change on Earth not over decades, but over hundreds of thousands and millions of years, are well aware that we live in a very cold era, and the temperature fluctuations observed over the past centuries and decades are hardly noticeable against the background of the global trend. to cooling, which can be traced throughout the second half of the Cenozoic era.

The first 30 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs (65-34 million years ago, which corresponds to the Paleocene and Eocene epochs), the climate on the planet was warm and even, and gradually became warmer. According to most experts, at that time the climatic differences between the equatorial and subpolar regions were much smaller than now. There were almost no large accumulations of non-melting ice anywhere (possibly, with the exception of the high-mountainous regions of Antarctica and the central part of the Arctic Ocean). Antarctica, despite its circumpolar position, was a green, flourishing country with a diverse flora and fauna.

About 34 million years ago, at the turn of the Eocene and Oligocene, the warm era gave way to a cold one, which continues to this day. Ice shell covered southern mainland destroying all life on it. The planet's climate has become colder and drier, with sharper seasonal temperature fluctuations and much more pronounced latitudinal zonality.

Global cooling did not lead to the destruction of life on Earth. However, it was accompanied by major changes in the animal and flora both on land and in the ocean. Many species died out, but they were soon replaced by new ones, and in general, the diversity of life on Earth during the second (cold) half of the Cenozoic continued to grow as rapidly as before the cooling.

Scientists are still arguing about the reasons that led to a sharp change in the climate on Earth. If earlier it was believed that the formation of the Drake Passage was the root cause of the great cooling, now scientists are inclined to the version of a decrease in CO 2 in the atmosphere, which could have occurred due to the rise of the Himalayan ridge.

It is known that against the background of the gradual cooling of the Earth, quite long periods of warming and cooling were observed in the last millennia. The so-called Little Ice Age (LIA) is a well-known period of global relative cooling that took place on Earth during the 14th-19th centuries. This period is the coldest in terms of average annual temperatures over the past 2 thousand years. The Little Ice Age was preceded by a small climatic optimum (about the 10th-13th centuries) - a period of relatively warm and even weather, mild winters and the absence of severe droughts.

What are the main natural factors that can now affect climate change and initiate its cooling? There are two main reasons that do not depend on human activity: 1) a decrease in the activity of the Sun 2) an increase in the activity of volcanoes.

It is known that during the Little Ice Age in 1645-1715 there was a minimum of solar activity, called the Maunder minimum. It was then that Greenland - the "Green Land" - was covered with glaciers, and the Viking settlements disappeared from the island. Frozen even south seas. Sledding along the Thames and the Danube. The global temperature dropped by 1-2 degrees Celsius. In the south of Europe, severe and long winters were often repeated, the Bosphorus Strait froze, and in the winter of 1708-1709, even the Adriatic Sea froze off the coast. The year 1665 was especially cold. In the winter of 1664-1665 in France and Germany, according to contemporaries, the birds froze in the air. Across Europe, there was a surge in deaths.

The cycle of solar activity - from maximum to maximum - lasts approximately 11 years. At the beginning of the cycle, there are very few sunspots, then their number increases and then declines again. Spots - dark areas on the surface of the Sun with a lower temperature - are formed in those places where its magnetic field suppresses the activity of the photosphere. Once every 11 years, the north and south poles of the Sun's magnetic field change places - according to one version, the process of this reversion explains the cyclic fluctuations in the number of sunspots. It is known that the amplitude of 11-year solar cycles can vary greatly. In 1645-1715, during the Maunder minimum, even during the peak period of the 11-year sunspot cycle, there were several orders of magnitude less than in previous and subsequent centuries. According to the calculations of some researchers, such recessions occur once every 350-400 years, and we are now just approaching one of them.

The numbering of cycles of solar activity began in 1750, the Zurich Observatory. We are now experiencing the end of the 24th cycle. The previous 23rd solar cycle featured a record deep minimum. The number of sunspot-free days on the Sun is the highest since the early 19th century. The current 24th solar cycle began in 2008. The rise in activity in this cycle was very slow, the increase in solar activity, according to scientists, lagged behind the typical schedule by about three years. The Sun showed relative activity in 2011 and 2014. But in general, the 23rd and 24th cycles turned out to be very weak.

Observations have shown that processes occur in the bowels of the Sun that affect activity. So, in the last two cycles, the rotation of the Sun in the polar regions has slowed down. In addition, the layer in which near-surface particles are born has become thinner. magnetic fields, which is reflected in the behavior of sunspots.

Scientists do not yet know if the observed changes will continue into the 25th cycle. They suggest that solar activity will continue to decline. In the event of such a development of events, an analogue of the Maunder Minimum and possibly a new Little Ice Age may begin.

The theory of the Little Ice Age is one of the strongest arguments in the hands of opponents of the concepts of anthropogenic global warming and the greenhouse effect. However, in the hands of scientists who defend the concept of warming, there are facts, namely the results of measurements of air and ocean temperatures in recent years. And the facts show that the temperature of the Earth is slowly rising and that CO 2 emissions play a decisive role here. What will happen in the long term, whether the Sun and volcanic eruptions will strongly influence the climate of the Earth, this can be discussed scientifically. But the impact of human activity on the Earth's climate has been proven, and a person should take this into account and try not to pollute the atmosphere.