We may not be perfect, but we are aware of the risks and are doing the best we can. :-)

-MJ

@skip thank you for differentiating between anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism.

Thank you all for your insightful comments and ongoing vibrant discussion.

Why not anthropomorphize the sun? I do it to my wife all the time and she’s at LEAST as inscrutable as the sun!

One man’s physics is another man’s pique, I say.

: )

The author did not challenge your religious views here; the “gratitude” spoken of in the article is possible whether you want to believe in a Creator or not. That big chip thing on your shoulder isn’t an asteroid, is it?

Oh yeah. Let’s bow, even in whimsy, to an amorphous conflagration of gasses. Because that’s funny, right? I mean, really, the idea that man need bow to anything, pssssh. But let’s make sure we put the all-hands mob beat down on even considering the possibility that this infinitely perfect balance and its miraculously fine tolerances, the existence of which you at least have the intellectual honesty to concede, couldn’t possibly be anything but the random result of time on scattered atoms of matter of totally unknown provenance. And all the while secure in the confidence WE make things happen.

Ye gods and little fishes, the smug arrogance of homo scientificus…

Human Beings live an environment having its own rules which we must adapt to. Sun Spot cycle 24 was long delayed. It is irregular except for producing few Sun Spots. We have gone through this pattern before, look up Maunder Minimum in Google. Big solar disturbances are possible during a low Sun Spot cycle. It is foolish not to look at the big picture and compare our current cycle with previous ones. If you did, you would find that Solar Activity is low and the heat output from the Sun is below normal. This is partly responsible for the cold winters we have been experiencing since 2006.

Science does not yet understand why these events are occurring in the Sun. It could be from a series of occurrences, deep within the center, which occurred a million years ago. It takes about that long for the energy from fusion to make its way to the surface.

Oil may be stored solar energy but you forget nuclear. Once the oil’s gone, nuclear will be the main source of energy assuming we haven’t forgotten how to build the infrastructure.

Another interesting data point might have been to report that the most recent NASA prediction of where solar cycle 24 (the current solar cycles) was nearly 2 years late in starting and is going to peak at an averaged sunspot number of 58. This number has been revised downward steadily since 2008 when the prediction stood at 130–140. For the sake of reference, that predicted “high” is equivalent to the “high” observed during the Maunder Minimum, which occurred from around 1675 and lasted up to around 1715 The Maunder is associated with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age event which saw the Thames frozen regularly during the winters.

I don’t mean to bust your chops, but if you’re going to communicate scientific information, I do think it would help immensely that you include a little more information for your readers to learn. When you talk about the “tantrums” of our local star, it seems to me that you have some obligation to help your readers put that into focus a little more sharply, otherwise it just seems like gratuitous fear-mongering.