Is a Grand Solar Minimum Something We Should Worry About? Is Another “Little Ice Age” Approaching?
You may have recently heard the term grand solar minimum and Maunder minimum bandied around by the media lately, but what the heck are they talking about? And should we be worried about another Little Ice Age approaching?
A grand solar minimum isn’t your average, every-11-year solar minimum. It’s been likened to a mini-Ice Age. A grand solar minimum can make the sun appear a little dimmer and can make the planet a little cooler.
Historians believe that a grand solar minimum occurred between 1645 and 1715. That event was named the Maunder Minimum after the scientists who studied it at the time.
It got so cold that the Thames River in England froze solid. The Baltic Sea also froze and the Swedes were able to invade the Danes by marching across the frozen sea.
The “Little Ice Age” was linked to all sorts of events during the time period. Thousands of people in Europe particularly were wiped out. The time period was host to the Great Plague, terrible famines, wars, revolutions, witch hunts, and more.
Valentina Zharkova, a professor of mathematics at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, believes we could potentially be headed toward another multiple-decade grand solar minimum as seen in the middle ages and has been warning people for years.