A Daily Mail story about the potential for an upcoming 20 to 30 year period of global cooling caught many people’s attention earlier this week. The article mentioned that some preeminent scientists believe that global temperatures are affected by a natural cycle in global ocean temperatures-potentially influencing up to 50% of the change in global temperatures in the past several decades. Scientists who hold this belief are predicting that global temperatures will be cooling over the next 20 to 30 years based on way this natural cycle is going.
I would not be surprised if global temperatures are partially impacted by a natural cycle in global ocean temperatures. However, I think the change in amount of solar energy that sun emits has a bigger impact than a natural cycle in global ocean temperatures.
A related news story two days ago focused on how Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is talking about the need to prepare for global cooling. Putin said “In addition to the global-warming challenges, we need to address 'global cooling' effects and to do so promptly”. While the context of the Putin’s statement was a speech about how Russia needed to upgrade its energy infrastructure, Putin’s statement reveals what he is thinking and allows us to potentially anticipate what European-Russian relations will be like future.
Putin’s statement reveals that he believes that Russia must position itself to take advantage of global cooling. Putin is a man who would not mention global cooling unless he was taking the situation seriously. Putin is also a man who sees his natural resources as not only an economic tool but a national security/geopolitical chip (in fact, Putin’s PHD thesis was about how Russia should exploit its natural resources). Accuweather Meteorologist Joe Bastardi, my favorite meteorologist, believes Putin thinks global cooling is coming and is readying to exploit the situation. You can read Bastardi’s comments at the following link:
I fully agree with what Bastardi had to say. Europe is very vulnerable to Russia if global cooling continues in this decade. A large percentage of Europe’s energy supplies run through pipelines that go through Russia. This gives Russia the ability to cutoff a large percentage of Europe’s energy supplies whenever they feel like it. If global cooling continues Europe’s winters will become increasingly brutal and Europeans will become even more dependent on Russia to supply them with energy so they can keep warm and stay alive. Russia would then be in a position to extract huge economic and political gains from European governments lest these governments allow their citizens to freeze in the bitter cold.
I just do not see how Europe is going to be a superpower in the end times due to their energy dependence on Russia. Russia’s control of a large portion of Europe’s energy supplies will put Europe at a huge disadvantage. Russia is going to be a force to be reckoned no matter what happens, but even more domineering in a cooling world.
