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Between 1650 and 1915 was produced in the Earth the so-called “Little Ice Age”: a period of solar activity was extremely low in the northern hemisphere, combined with cooling from aerosols of volcanic, originated surface temperature is lower . Among the consequences of this decrease of heat overall, quaint alpine villages were wiped out by the unstoppable advance of the glaciers or the citizens londoners were able to skate on the Thames, for example. Since a few years ago, some scientists warn that a similar situation it could happen around the decade of 2030 . Is there any truth in this?

Now, the same NASA has wanted to refute the predictions of the next “Mini ice age” for the expected -and proved – reduction of the production of the energy of our star in the coming decades. That is to say: yes there will be a ” Grand Solar Minimum “, but it doesn’t affect the Earth, already over-heated by the effect of the climate change .

The natural changes in the solar cycle

In the course of its life, the Sun undergoes natural changes in the production of energy. Some occur during a normal period of 11-year peak (lots of sunspots) and low activity (less sunspots), which are fairly predictable, which is called the “solar cycle”. However, once in a while, our sun becomes more quiet, shows a lot of less sunspots and emits less energy . This phenomenon is known as a “Grand Solar Minimum”, and the last time that this happened, coincided, indeed, with the “little ice age” of the late Middle Ages until nearly the finish of the NINETEENTH century.

For this reason, some scientists have heralded this new “little ice age”. However, other researchers note that this drop in temperature is only would compensate for three years of current growth of the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), which produces the effect contract. “Therefore, a new Grand Solar Minimum would only serve to offset a few years of warming caused by human activities”, they said in a comuicado from the space agency through the blog Ask a Nasa Climate.

In fact, the warming caused by the emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning human fossil fuel is six times higher than the possible cooling of decades of a solar minimum period. What is more, even if a Grand Solar Minimum would last for a century , the global temperatures would continue to rise . And this happens because of the fact that it heats the Earth depends not only on the production of energy from the Sun, but also of what we humans on its surface. And, today, our emissions of greenhouse gases are the main driver of the rise in temperatures, indicate from NASA. That is to say, a new “mini ice age” will not mean much of a difference and even will help to alleviate the phenomena of climate change.