Robert Felix, a former architect, became interested in the ice-age cycle back in 1991 and has been researching and writing about the possibility of a coming ice age ever since. In the first half, he argued that we are seeing the beginnings of a mini-ice age, which several astrophysicists have also recently concluded, he noted. This cycle may be similar to what happened in the 1600s when the sun had no sunspots. Because of the colder weather in that time frame, there were crop shortages and mass starvation. One of the initial patterns for a small ice age, he explained, is that the rainy season lasts a little longer in the spring, and starts a bit earlier in the fall. It doesn't take many weeks of that to start messing with the food supply, he warned.
Among the signs of unusually early cold weather, he cited the following events from Sept. 9-12th: a surprise winter storm dropping 17 inches of snow in Wyoming, Kansas City setting a new cold record, Denver recording its earliest ever freeze, and Midland, Texas hitting a new cold record that was 14 degrees colder than the previous one. Additionally, many glaciers are advancing, such as in the Western Himalayas, including Mount Everest, he reported. During a mini-ice age, the jet stream will change, and we'll actually see sea levels drop significantly, Felix said. Increased underwater volcanic activity is heating up the oceans, he added, yet above ground volcanoes are also more active, which puts more ash in the sky and contributes to the cooling effect.
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In the latter half, author and SETI astronomer Seth Shostak talked about new scientific theories that some form of life could exist in the atmosphere of Venus, as well as the latest news in astronomy and the search for ET life. Scientists recently discovered the gas phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere, which is often produced by life forms such as bacteria. Decades ago, scientist David Grinspoon suggested that Venus might have some type of life in its clouds, so this may eventually prove to be a confirmation. Shostak pointed out that Venus had oceans of water for a couple of billions of years before they boiled away, and some of the microbes that may have lived in the water perhaps moved up into the air to survive.
It's been speculated that Mars had microbial life too, he continued, after there were possible indicators found on a meteorite that hailed from the Red Planet. For some sixty years, SETI has looked for extraterrestrial signs by studying radio waves from space. But now, they are widening their scope, and looking for visual signs like lasers, Shostak reported, with the idea that a flicker of laser light could be a kind of alien 'technosignature.' Though he doesn't believe ETs have visited Earth, he thinks it's very likely they're out there. And that possibility grows even stronger with the increased number of exoplanets discovered (over 4,000 currently). We might even find life on some of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, he remarked, so the idea that planets have to be in the "Goldilocks Zone" to support life may be misleading.
News segment guests: Howard Bloom, Mish Shedlock