For the first time since June 1913, there has been no sunspot activity for a whole month. The zero sunspot activity for August 2008 was preceded by an average of only three sunspots for the first seven months of the year. This low solar activity contrasts with the average of a hundred or so sunspots per month when the sun enters its more active phases. Mitch Battros and other solar researchers have been arguing that we are witnessing the calm before the storm of what will be the most powerful solar cycle on record. In particular, Battros claims that Solar Cycle 24 will cause widespread Earth Changes and human disruption at an unprecedented scale that coincides with the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012. What Battros and other like minded researchers fail to account for in their analyses of solar activity and its impact on Earth is the role of global consciousness. The zero sunspot count for August may therefore not be a cause for concern, but a sign that changes in global consciousness are influencing solar activity in a positive way. Before examining the idea that low sunspot activity up to this time is the proverbial calm before the storm, it’s worth briefly commenting on an alternative explanation.
There is widespread scientific agreement that sunspot activity is one of the primary factors driving earth’s weather patterns. The low sunspot activity in the first half of 2008 has therefore led to some scientific speculation that we are on the verge of a mini ice age called a Maunder Minimum. The Maunder Minimum was the period between 1645 and 1715 when there was relatively little sun spot activity. During one thirty year period, only about 50 sunspots appeared as opposed to the typical 40,000–50,000 sunspots. This resulted in a “Little Ice Age” that devastated food crops in Northern Europe, North America and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. This may happen again according to two scientists, William Livingston and Matthew Penn, from the National Solar Observatory (NSO), who claim that sunspots are likely to disappear altogether in the next ten years. They submitted a paper with their surprising arguments in 2005 to the journal Science, but it was declined on the grounds of being too controversial. At a solar scientific conference at Montana State University in June 2008, Saku Tsuneta with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, said of the sun’s solar activity: "It continues to be dead... That's a small concern, a very small concern."
Alternatively, other solar researchers claim we are witnessing the calm before the storm of what is predicted to be the most powerful solar cycle on record. In 2006 a team of solar scientists led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) announced that the “next sunspot cycle [#24] will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one." This has given credence to claims by Mitch Battros that we are about to experience the most turbulent and intense period of solar activity on record which will trigger enormous Earth Changes and human disruption.
Sunspot Activity, Earth Changes and Human Disruption
Battros uses the following equation to summarize his reasoning: “Sunspots => Solar Flares (charged particles) => Magnetic Field Shift => Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents => Extreme Weather and Human Disruption.” Basically, he argues that sunspots trigger solar events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that have an effect on the Earth’s magnetosphere. CME’s deliver vast amounts of electromagnetic energy that can have a great impact the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and mantle. The result for high sunspot activity and CMEs directed at the Earth are major weather disturbances such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.; damage to electrical systems and disruption of human physiology.
In his popular book, Solar Rain, Battros believes that the Mayans understood solar cycles and indeed predicted a highly active cycle to coincide with the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012. This has contributed to a groundswell of popular support for the idea that 2012 marks a transition period in human history marked by intense solar activity and catastrophic Earth Changes. 2012 occurs around the peak of the Solar Cycle 24 which some claim began in July 2007 while others claim January 2008.
Remarking on the low sunspot count for the first half of 2008, Battros saw the calm as signaling a pressure build up similar to powerful earthquakes. In one of his regular Earth Changes reports, he writes: “Just as with all too quiet periods of earthquake activity, watch for Solar Cycle 24 to begin its ramping up starting next year, and if current scientific and ancient text predictions are correct, we had all better watch closely and remain "aware and prepare" for the storm many will not have expected.”
Battros agrees that sunspot activity impacts on human physiology and consciousness, and makes this one of the main planks of his basic equation: “Sunspots => Solar Flares (charged particles) => Magnetic Field Shift => Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents => Extreme Weather and Human Disruption.”
As far as human disruption is concerned, Battros writes:
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