DOW PURGES 1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS TODAY

Today is the scariest day I have personally witnessed on Wall Street. I was fresh out of high school when the market plunged in 1987. Even though the percentage amount of the loss in 87' was higher than today, the fundamentals of the economy are much worse now. We are facing life changing times here in America. It's time to wake up to the reality that we are going to be affected by the continuing collapse of our economy and by the ineptitude of our leaders who have failed to take action in this darkest of hours.
By Warren Hohman

Summer Arctic Ice Second Lowest on Record

Arctic sea ice has apparently reached its 2008 summer minimum. On September 12th the National Snow and Ice Data Center recorded the ice at .52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles). This is the second lowest minimum, 150,000 square miles more than last years record setting low. Over the last few days the ice has started to refreeze in response to autumn's arrival.

The top three lowest sea ice events have occurred in the last five years. This underscores the dramatic changes that are taking place at the top of the world due to climate change. The record was set this summer despite the overall cooler conditions in the Arctic.

The NSIDC attains its measurements from imagery and microwave data from satellites maintained by NASA and the government of the United States. Since the satellite era began in 1979, this record is based on roughly 30 years of data.

By Warren Hohmann

Arctic Ocean - Yet?

With only five days left before the annual Arctic Sea ice minimum, I thought it would be appropriate to gaze into the future. On some not too distant mid September day this is the view we'll see as we traverse the Arctic Ocean. It may be 20 years from now or it may be in as little as 10 years, but the reality is now clear that one day there will be an open ocean at the top of the world.

August saw another record loss of Arctic ice. In a few days the National Snow and Ice Data Center will release its annual report as to the extent of this summer's sea ice minimum in the Arctic. As it stands 2008 will be the second lowest sea ice extent following the all time record holder 2007. There is still a chance that this year's ice will be the lowest yet. More to come...
By Warren Hohmann

SPOT FREE

(Source: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO))

If this were an orange it would be pretty near perfect. Actually this image of our sun is a bit of a conundrum because of its smooth appearance. Scientists from the UCLA Solar Observatory, high atop Mount Wilson in Southern California, recently reported that for the first time in over one hundred years the sun has gone an entire month without a single sunspot. In fact, as of today (9/1/08), it has been 44 days since the last sunspot.

The last half century the sun has undergone many vigorous solar cycles. A solar cycle averages about 11 years and it peaks with a period of increased sunspots, followed by a decline into a phase of few sunspots. We are in a new solar cycle now, however there has been very little sunspot activity. Recent studies of the sun (Hathaway, 2004 & Svalgard, 2005) point to changes in the sunspots temperature and magnetic strength. Both studies suggest that sunspot activity will diminish in the coming years or even vanish altogether for a period.

This would be a historic event that has not happened since the famous Maunder Minimum which occurred from 1645 to 1715. And such an event could have significance in all of our lives because the Maunder Minimum coincided with the ‘Little Ice Age’. Very little is understood about how solar cycles affect and our planet’s climate, but the correlation is there that when the sunspots vanished in 1645 our planet got dramatically cooler. In terms of global warming the suns impact on our planets climate variation is one of the lingering debates among climatologists. However, like global warming, global cooling also presents a serious set of problems highlighted by massive crop failures that could lead to mass starvation. So as if we don’t have enough to think about in these trying times the sun throws us a curve ball.

By Warren Hohmann