The Chilling Stars: A Cosmic View of Climate Change |  | Authors: Henrik Svensmark, Nigel Calder
Publisher: Totem Books
Category: Book
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 275041
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 268
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1840468661
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.73874
EAN: 9781840468663
ASIN: 1840468661
Publication Date: August 2008
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Product Description
Scientists agree that the earth has become hotter over the last century. But on the causes, despite what looks to the public mind like a consensus, there are dissenting voices. Based on Henrik Svensmark's research at the Danish National Space Center, this book outlines a brilliant and daring new theory that has already provoked fresh thinking on global warming. As prize-winning science writer Nigel Calder and Svensmark himself explain, an interplay of the sun and cosmic rays - sub-atomic particles from exploded stars - seem to have more effect on the climate than man-made carbon dioxide. For anyone interested in the real science behind our climate, this book is a must-read.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Clouds, Climate Change, and Cosmic Rays September 8, 2008
Edward Miller (Bethesda, Maryland)
37 out of 39 found this review helpful
A very readable book that makes strong case for effects of cosmic rays on cloud formation and hence on climate change. Because the basic theory is that fluctuations in the sun's magnetic field affect cosmic ray intensity on earth, there is considerable material on astronomy (cosmic rays, supernovas etc.) which provides the background needed to understand the discussion. In essence, more solar magnetic storms strengthen the sun's magnetic field which divert cosmic rays from earth. Cosmic rate create ions that provide nuclei for cloud formation. More nuclei mean more low clouds and more reflective clouds which in turn cool the earth, (except over Anartica and other ice covered areas, since snow and ice actually reflect even more sunlight than clouds).
The author (a Danish scientists who did much of the key work in this area) has been able to produce the effect in the laboratory and has documented the statistical relationship with low level clouds and surface temperatures. Many climate episodes over millions of years appear to be explained by cosmic ray effects. The theory also explains how differing number of sun spots come to affect year to year climate change on earth.
The later makes this a key book for those interested in the global warming debates, especially since so much of the research is recent. This makes it a must read since the evidence is not yet in most other popular discussions of climate change.
Superb study of the causes of climate change October 31, 2008
William Podmore (London United Kingdom)
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
Henrik Svensmark, director of the Centre of Sun-Climate Research at the Danish National Space Centre, and Nigel Calder, the well-known science writer, have produced a challenging book on climate change.
When stars die, they do so in supernova explosions that emit cosmic rays, which create ions, which form clouds. Low clouds - less than 3000 metres above the surface - keep the planet cool. The less active the sun is, the more cosmic rays get through to the earth, and so the more clouds there are to cool the earth.
The Danish National Space Centre's SKY experiment showed how cosmic rays set free electrons which then catalysed the clubbing together of sulphuric acid molecules, the most important source of condensation nuclei. These cosmic rays have varied since the world began; their influx depends largely on where the earth is in the galaxy in our orbit around the centre of the Milky Way. When the earth is in dark regions with few stars where the rays are scarce, the climate is warm. When the earth is in bright regions where the rays are intense, the climate is cool.
The medieval warm period of 1000-1300 was followed by the cool periods of 1300-60 and 1450-1540, and a worse one, the little ice age of 1645-1715, then another cool period in 1790-1820. The peak of the little ice age was 1700, which coincided with the Maunder Minimum, when the sun's magnetic activity was very low, reducing its ability to shield the earth from cosmic rays.
In the last century, the sun's magnetic field doubled in strength, reducing the cosmic rays and so the clouds, thus heating up the earth by 0.70C from 1900 to 2005, 70% of the 20th century's warming. The authors predict that global warming in this century is likely to be at the low end of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's forecast of a 1.80C-40C rise by 2100.
Indeed, temperatures have not risen since 2001, even though global CO2 emissions have been rising faster than ever. Also, the Antarctic's area of sea ice grew by 8% between 1978 and 2005.
Svensmark: The Chilling Stars, 2nd ed October 5, 2009
Thomas G Subirge
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book requires an open mind, some critical thinking, and eyes open to new concepts. An old proverb states: all progress stems from unpopular decisions - so if you're an avid believer of Al Gore and the UN's IPCC you're wasting your time. When comparing Svensmark's advanced thinking to Pythagoras discovering a round earth in 500 BC, you will be amazed at how organized and logical his perception of our climate is, similar to Pythagoras actually having accurately computed the earths circumference in 500 BC. Both were unpopular as their work didn't fit into political agendas of their time - however, I commend their persistance in persuing science without an agenda. The book is a fascinating and worthwhile read and is written for a general audience, though parts of it require some pondering to digest the concepts. Svensmark was not entirely alone in his discoveries as previous work has contributed to his; however his work has become a milestone through his own contributions as well as enjoining other evidence into a predictable scientific basis of climate change.
Plausible alternative to AGW August 1, 2009
Dick Stanley (Austin, TX, United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
NASA, for one, considers unproven Svensmark's theory that cosmic rays provide seed nuclei for the low-altitude clouds that keep earth's temperature low, thus having much more effect on climate than carbon dioxide.
"Speculation," said the agency scientists who recently pronounced the current solar minimum the strongest since the space age began--meaning the solar wind is subsiding and cosmic rays are increasing.
Svensmark's and science writer Nigel Calder's book shows the cosmic ray theory has ample evidence to be respectable, and to be a plausible alternative to the U.N.'s contention that industrial and automotive carbon dioxide will make the seas rise, the tropics move north, and should prompt the energy-impoverishment of the developed world. Svensmark's theory invites collaboration from scientists as diverse as particle physicists, astronomers and biologists, and it should interest NASA, as it involves such climate drivers as supernovae and the solar system's passage through the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy.
But, even as a growing bunch of amateur scientists wonder if the sun's lack of solar-wind-increasing sunspots this year could mean we're headed for global cooling, even a mini Ice Age, Svensmark isn't assuming the leadership of a cosmic ray movement. He says it would be "scientifically rash" to use his theory to offer any firm climate forecast for decades ahead. Which is refreshing difference between him and the carbon dioxide cult.
Important facts and science July 11, 2010
F. G. Nobrega (SJ Campos - SP - BRASIL)
This is a wonderful book that focuses on the experiments and the science that brings evidence about the cosmic influences on earth's climate. I learned very much and the book is written in a way that an educated person with basic understanding of science will be able to follow. Svensmark and colleagues are true scientists that follow the saga of men like Richard Carrington, Walter Maunder, Milutin Milankovitch, Hartmut Heinrich, Eugene Parker, Willi Dansgaard, Johann Oeschger among others. The events studied are complex and bring together scientists and results from anthropology and human evolution, through chemistry, physics and astronomy. The authors have much to tell and wasted little time with the hypothesis of anthropogenic CO2-based global warming. Like Copernicus, they show that, as climate is concerned, man is not at the center of the universe but subjected to natural law. This is no surprise considering the long history of climatic change since billion years ago, without Homo sapiens. The confirmation and extension of the experimental SKY project involves now about 50 scientists from different institutions - the CLOUD experiment at CERN:
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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