Many of us know that global warming is a big issue, and we try to do our best to reduce our carbon print to save the planet. But somewhere in the dark there are some scientists that claim a different thesis: we are in a global cooling period.

It is common knowledge that in the next years, the ice caps at the poles are to melt and may even disappear. But some scientist’s discovery may contradict this theory. The ice caps are melting reducing their total surface. But, the most important ice parts are not melting, they are thickening. The problem is that if that continues we’ll have bigger ice caps.

Ironically, it is when a scientific boat studying the impact of global warming , The Akademik Shokalsiy,  got stuck in ice while researching, that scientists knew something was wrong. Two icebreakers were sent to save the boat. the first one was an Australian boat and the other was a Chinese ship. The Australian icebreaker aborted its mission to rescue the Akademik but it was hundred miles away. the Chinese vessel trapped itself while trying to save the scientific boat.  A small French Icebreaker made an attempt to rescue the trapped boat, but the ice were too thick for the boat so it retreats. Then helicopters from the the Chinese vessels were dispatched to airlift the scientists on the Akademik and also the sailors on the Chinese icebreaker to the Aurora Australis, an another scientific ship, where they were safe.

But why the ice were so thick?

The reason of this ice thickening is that the sun is starting to go in a period of inactivity. As a result a lot of sunspots can be observed on its surface. Those spots are dark areas that are colder than the rest of the sun. The normal temperature of the sun’s surface is 5500 degree Celsius, but on these abnormal zones  3500 degree Celsius.

If the sun is less powerful, then the Earth’s temperatures will be colder than usual.

It is surprising, but we are in a little ice age. It will certainly start in 2020 or in 15 years, then it should last until 2030 or 2040 depending of the climate model.  After that short ice age we will return in a global warming state.

That global warming/cooling cycle will return supposedly in 2060 when a global cooling will take place. The cycle is a period of 30 years of cooling followed by a period of global warming, then it starts over for another 60 years. But these are previsions, it can vary.

That kind of climate anomalies were seen in the past. From 1645 to 1715 the temperatures got really low for a 70 years long cooling. That mini ice age was called Maunder Minimum.

With the new climate model, created with the data of the last “normal” global cooling periods, we can predict when the next cooling will take place. But how bad will it be? How long will it last? The Scientists don’t really know.

As the diagram shows, depending of what type of cooling we will have, the result could vary. The information given by that climate simulation is validated by the data taken from polar caps. It shows that the overall temperatures are getting warmer slowly with each global warming period. Our CO2 emissions are a big part of this increase. It’s the reason why we have to stop emitting pollution.

So Global cooling is certainly just a glitch in the climate change. We have to continue to make our emissions smaller and take care of our planet.