Action not wishful thinking

So, one of your correspondents is hoping that a solar flare may trigger a new ice age and save the planet. However, consider these established facts:

1. The area of Arctic summer sea ice has at least halved since the 1970s (and is predicted to disappear completely in the next decade). There are a number of negative feedbacks associated with the loss of ice.

2. Ice reflects most of the incident solar radiation whereas water absorbs it.

3. As Arctic ice melts in summer it maintains a steady 0C temperature in the immediate environment. Water just keeps heating up once the ice has disappeared.

4. The Greenland ice sheet is rapidly melting (the ice sheet is losing 300 cubic kilometres a year).

5. The Antarctic ice sheet is losing 84 cubic kilometres a year.

6. All the main land-based glaciers are retreating.

7. The Siberian Arctic tundra is melting, resulting in the release of trapped methane (a strong global warming gas).

8. Previous ice ages took at least centuries to establish.

Waiting for the possibility of an incipient new ice age is like Waiting for Godot i.e. it will not arrive. Global warming is now at a tipping point and requires international action not procrastination on some vague, wishful thinking. Keith Allum New Plymouth