Ancient stone carvings in Turkey's Gobekli Tepe confirm how comet struck Earth in 10,950BC.

Ancient stone carvings in Turkey's Gobekli Tepe confirm how comet struck Earth in 10,950BC. (Telegraph).

Ancient stone carvings confirm that a comet struck the Earth around 11,000BC, a devastating event which wiped out woolly mammoths and sparked the rise of civilisations.

Experts at the University of Edinburgh analysed mysterious symbols carved onto stone pillars at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey, to find out if they could be linked to constellations.

The markings suggest that a swarm of comet fragments hit Earth at the exact same time that a mini-ice age struck, changing the entire course of human history.

Scientists have speculated for decades that a comet could be behind the sudden fall in temperature during a period known as the Younger Dryas. But recently the theory appeared to have been debunked by new dating of meteor craters in North America where the comet is thought to have struck.

However, when engineers studied animal carvings made on a pillar – known as the vulture stone – at Gobekli Tepe they discovered that the creatures were actually astronomical symbols which represented constellations and the comet.

The idea had been originally put forward by author Graham Hancock in his book Magicians of the Gods.

Using a computer programme to show where the constellations would have appeared above Turkey thousands of years ago, they were able to pinpoint the comet strike to 10,950BC, the exact time the Younger Dryas begins according to ice core data from Greenland.

The Younger Dryas is viewed as a crucial period for humanity, as it roughly coincides with the emergence of agriculture and the first Neolithic civilisations.

"If you consider that, according to astronomers, this giant comet probably arrived in the inner solar system some 20 to 30 thousand years ago, and it would have been a very visible and dominant feature of the night sky, it is hard to see how ancient people could have ignored this given the likely consequences."

The research is published in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry. Read the full story here.

Related.

More info on this story can be found here: The Vulture Stone of Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Pictogram?

Earth facing another ICE AGE within 15 YEARS? Russian scientists discover Sun 'cooling'.

Earth facing another ICE AGE within 15 YEARS? Russian scientists discover Sun 'cooling'. (Express).

Experts say that solar activity as low as it currently is has not been seen since the mini-ice age that took place between 1645 and 1715 – a period known as the Maunder Munimum where the entire Thames froze over.

A new model has allowed experts to predict solar activity with more accuracy than ever before and it suggests that magnetic activity will fall by 60 per cent between 2030 and 2040.

The model looks at the Sun’s ’11-year heartbeat’ – the period it takes for magnetic activity to fluctuate. This cycle was first discovered some 173 years ago.

However, a mathematician has established a more up-to-date model that can forecast what the solar cycles will look like based upon dynamo effects in two layers of the Sun.

Dynamo effects are a geophysical theory that dictate how the movement of the Earth’s outer core conducts materials like liquid iron across the magnetic field to create an electric current – this also influences fluid motion beneath Earth’s surface to create two magnetic fields along the axis of the Earth’s rotation.

Valentina Zharkova from Northumbria University applied this theory to the Sun, and was able to predict the affects of solar cycles with 97 per cent accuracy.

Ms Zharkova said at the National Astronomy Meeting: “We found magnetic wave components appearing in pairs, originating in two different layers in the Sun's interior. 

"They both have a frequency of approximately 11 years, although this frequency is slightly different, and they are offset in time. 

“Combining both waves together and comparing to real data for the current solar cycle, we found that our predictions showed an accuracy of 97 per cent.”

Ms Zharkova says the next cycle is set to peak in 2022, and the cycle after, known as Cycle 26, will herald a new ice age.Read the full story here.

'Ready or Not' the Polar Vortex returns.

'Ready or Not' the Polar Vortex returns.HT: The weather network. After a brief warm up, people across the country are being told to prepare for the oh so beloved return of the polar vortex this week.

Temperatures will significantly plummet in areas east of the Rockies throughout the week.

"Areas spanning from Calgary to Toronto will be 10 to 15°C below normal this week," says Weather Network meteorologist Brian Dillon. "Regions east of Toronto will be colder starting on Monday. However, with the lack of moisture through the Prairies and Ontario, there will be no big snow storms for the next five days."

This past weekend has already been a cold one for the Prairies and that trend is expected to continue through a large part of the week.

"Cold air is expected to infiltrate Ontario on Monday, while getting progressively cooler throughout the week," says Monica Vaswani, another meteorologist at The Weather Network.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A POLAR VORTEX?

The polar vortex is by no means something new or something rare. It is a permanent atmospheric feature all year round existing at the North and South Poles. They are a circulation (on a planetary scale, not a mesoscale like a tornado, so it’s big) and are located from the middle troposphere to the stratosphere so it is an upper level phenomenon. The polar vortices are strongly reliant on large scale temperature gradients so in the winter, they are at their strongest due to the temperature gradient between the equatorial regions and the poles. The term “polar vortex” has been used in scientific papers since the 1940’s.

Here's a brilliant explanation by Weather Network meteorologist Doug Gillham about what the polar vortex is.

Say hello to 'PolarVortex III' coming to a neighborhood near you..... soon

Say hello to 'PolarVortex III' coming to a neighborhood near you...... soon. HT: Anthony farnell.


Chief Meteorologist at Global News Toronto @Anthonyfarnell had again the immense pleasure to treat Canadians to another unwelcome and uninvited guest 'PolarVortexIII'.

Obviously North America is experiencing a 'Hopefully' once in a lifetime 'Genuine' Old fashioned Winter.

With no end in sight, the winter of 2014 rages on, ushering in frigid Arctic air and dumping record-breaking snow and ice on much of the nation. This season, ice coverage on Lake Superior has exceeded other measurements in recent history.

"By the long shot this is the most ice we've had on Lake Superior in 20 years," Associate Professor Jay Austin of the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., said.

During a typical winter, 30 to 40 percent of the Great Lakes are covered by ice, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson.

Usually Arctic air swept over the Great Lakes creates lake-effect snow, but modifies the air, making it warmer. This usually makes regions from Ohio through the Northeast a little warmer than it otherwise would be.

However, this winter 80 to 90 percent of the Great Lakes are covered in ice. As of Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014, Lake Superior was classified as 90 percent covered.

Other than the ice jam worries, the ice coverage on the Great Lakes, specifically on Lake Superior, is mounting concerns for the region's climate.

"With all of this ice, all the sunlight that hits the surface of the lake is going to get bounced back out into space, so it's going to take longer to get warmer this spring and summer," Austin said. "The lake is going to just start warming this year when it will start cooling off for next year."

This could bring a relatively cool year for the communities surrounding the lake.

However, the silver lining of the massive ice coverage is that perhaps it can prevent lake water levels from lowering like they did just last year.

"With the ice cover, less water gets evaporated so lake levels stay high and help preserve some of the water," Anderson said.

Regardless of the impending impacts of the ice on the region, one thing is for sure, the ice isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

An impending return of the now-infamous polar vortex for the middle of next week ill send temperatures from the Midwest to the Northeast plummeting 15 to 20 degrees below normal. As it drops down to the James Bay in Canada, it will deliver another blast of arctic air for the area.

"This type of airmass will give the Great Lakes the potential for a new satellite-era ice coverage record," Anderson said.

The winters of 1993 and 1994 had the previous highest since we started monitoring ice coverage with satellites about 30 years ago.Hmmmm......My heart go's out to these hardworking farmers , fruit growers and wineries around the lakes, these people face a potential disastrous year, will the wineries survive that much frost?  And is this the beginning of a new mini ice age?

Prince of Wales hits out at climate change deniers… labelling them the ‘headless chicken brigade’

Source : Mike the 'Headless Chicken'

Prince of Wales hits out at climate change deniers… labeling them the ‘headless chicken brigade’.(DailyMail). By REBECCA ENGLISH

• Prince Charles spoke out over ‘sheer intimidation’ of anti-climate change groups
• Said they turn scientific wisdom on its head to suit their own purposes
• Was speaking at an event for young entrepreneurs at Buckingham Palace

Inflammatory: Charles said climate change denies use ‘intimidation’ to get their point across

Climate change deniers are headless chickens, Prince Charles has claimed.

In an inflammatory speech, the heir to the throne spoke out against ‘the barrage of sheer intimidation’ from what he described as powerful interest groups.

Addressing young environmental entrepreneurs at Buckingham Palace, he said skeptics were turning accepted scientific wisdom on its head.

He said: ‘It is baffling that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything – until, that is, it comes to climate science. All of a sudden, and with a barrage of sheer intimidation, we are told by powerful groups of deniers that the scientists are wrong and we must abandon all our faith in so much overwhelming scientific evidence.

‘So, thank goodness for our young entrepreneurs here, who have the far-sightedness and confidence in what they know is happening to ignore the headless chicken brigade and do something practical to help.’

Charles was announcing the winner of a sustainability prize designed to inspire young people to tackle environmental, social and health issues.Read the full story here. More from WattsUpWithThat.

German 'Green' energy – Renewable energy surcharge added to consumer’s electricity bill will increase by 20 percent.

German 'Green' energy – Renewable energy surcharge added to consumer’s electricity bill will increase by 20 percent.HT: IceAgeNow.

                         “Electricity is becoming a luxury good in Germany.”

German consumers already pay the highest electricity prices in Europe. But because the government is failing to get the costs of its new energy policy under control, rising prices are already on the horizon.
German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier’s predecessor once claimed that switching Germany to renewable energy wasn’t going to cost citizens more than one scoop of ice cream.

Today Altmaier admits consumers are paying enough to “eat everything on the ice cream menu.”

The government predicts that the renewable energy surcharge added to every consumer’s electricity bill will increase by 20 percent.

Paying Big for Nothing

This year, German consumers will be forced to pay €20 billion ($26 billion) for electricity from solar, wind and biogas plants — electricity with a market price of just over €3 billion. 

Even the figure of €20 billion is disputable if you include all the unintended costs and collateral damage associated with the project.
Solar panels and wind turbines at times generate huge amounts of electricity, and sometimes none at all. Depending on the weather and the time of day, the country can face absurd states of energy surplus or deficit.
If there is too much power coming from the grid, wind turbines have to be shut down. Nevertheless, consumers are still paying for the “phantom electricity” the turbines are theoretically generating.

Occasionally, Germany has to pay fees to dump already subsidized green energy, creating what experts refer to as “negative electricity prices.”

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/high-costs-and-errors-of-german-transition-to-renewable-energy-a-920288.html
Photo gallery:
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-the-costs-of-green-energy-fotostrecke-101006.html

German green party plummets in poll before election

It was an astounding result.
In April of 2011, a political survey found that fully 28 percent of German voters supported the Green Party.
And now?
With the vote two-and-a-half weeks away, the picture is not nearly as rosy. A poll released Thursday found that just 10 percent of Germans – just 1 in 10 – intend to vote for the Greens on Sept. 22. It is the lowest survey result for the once popular party since way back in 2009.

Hey, U.S. politicians. You’d better take notice. First Australia. Now Germany?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-green-party-plummets-in-poll-before-election-a-920818.html

Arctic ice doesn't Obey Scientists – Top scientists warn of global COOLING.

Arctic ice doesn't Obey Scientists – Top scientists warn of global COOLING.HT: IceAgeNow.

Six years ago, the BBC reported that the Arctic would be ice-free by summer 2013.

Instead, almost a million more square miles of ocean are covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 60 per cent.

“The rebound comes just six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free by summer 2013,” reports the UK Daily Mail.

“Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.”

“The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year. More than 20 yachts that had planned to sail it have been left ice-bound and a cruise ship attempting the route was forced to turn back.”

“Some eminent scientists now believe the world is heading for a period of cooling, which would expose computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming as dangerously misleading.”
“Those predictions now appear gravely flawed.”

Meanwhile, US climate expert Professor Judith Curry points to long-term cycles in ocean temperature suggesting that the world may be approaching a clear cooling trend.

Such a cooling trend from 1965 to 1975 led some scientists at the time to forecast an imminent ice age.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/Global-cooling-Arctic-ice-caps-grows-60-global-warming-predictions.html

See also:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/10294082/Global-warming-No-actually-were-cooling-claim-scientists.html