It was with great trepidation that I saw Glenn Reynolds' link to a report that "The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century" -- especially because of Glenn's observation that the solar dimming may be causing civil unrest (as well as his concerns about fallen angels).

There's no question that the sun is dimming. What ought to be of greater concern, though, is the fact that scientists claim not to understand why.

There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.

The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting.

The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period.

Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.

According to Prof Louise Hara of University College London, it is unclear why this is happening or when the Sun is likely to become more active again.

The photo on the left shows the sun in 2001 (just as the Bush term was beginning), and on the right is this year.

The vital spots on which we all depend are gone.

Can it be a pure coincidence that this dramatic dimming all happened under Bush, and at precisely the same time that Al Gore and all other top scientists unanimously consensusized that human activity (in the form of deadly CO2 emissions) is destroying the Earth in a major cataclysm?

Considering the interconnectedness of everything on earth (which is part of a vastly interconnected vast interplanetary ecosystem), isn't it likely that all of this noxious human activity is in fact the cause of the solar breakdown?

In light of known scientific theories, what I'd like to know is why they are saying it's unclear? From "The correcting role of unusual heliocentric atmospheric phenomena," by A. N. Dmitriev, of the Geology and Geophysics Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, USSR.

Research has been done on solar-terrestrial correlations on the basis of the organism model for the Earth, which suggests that the Earth affects the Sun by means of a natural energy and information flow and as a result of man-made factors.

Changes in the Earth pattern affect regular processes in the solar system and cause new formations in solar activity. Solar-terrestrial correlations represent an energy and information flux and provide regulation mechanisms for the biosphere and the climatic engine on an evolutionary basis in strict agreement with the evolution of the solar system.

Large bodies of observations on unusual atmospheric phenomena have led to suggestions on their role and origin. The present paper is based on the Gaia hypothesis and solar-terrestrial correlations. The latter information has also been used to elucidate the origins of the main types of unusual atmospheric phenomenon. Man's activities in the twentieth century have greatly modified the Earth's geophysical portrait, which affects solar-terrestrial relationships. The current 22nd solar activity cycle is without precedent as regards the scale and variety of the geooriented processes. From the start of the cycle, there was a sharp rise in these unusual atmospheric phenomena, particularly in stressed tectonophysics zones. Information theory and data analysis suggest hypotheses on the correcting role of these phenomena generated by the Sun. This correction tends to neutralize the destructive power of the current technical phase in civilization.

The only explanation I can come up with is that because of the Bush administration's War Against Science, vital scientific research has been ignored.

But because of Change© a new future may be dawning!