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Mankind has been down this road before and we will go down this road again and we will survive. The last time we faced this type of disaster was over 300 years ago, as a result it has almost been erased from our collective memory. A solar “Grand Minima” produces a time of great hardship, a time of significant natural global cooling, a time of great famine and starvation and a time of major epidemics.

The sun exhibits great variability in the strength of each solar cycle. This variability ranges from extremely quiet “Grand Minima” such as the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715 A.D.) to a very active “Grand Maxima” such as the enhanced activity observed during most of the 20th century (1940-2000 A.D.). A solar Grand Minima is defined as a period when the (smoothed) sunspot number is less than 15 during at least two consecutive decades. The sun spends about 17 percent of the time in a Grand Minima state. In the past, these periods caused great hardship to humanity and significant loss of life.

Solar Grand Minima events correspond to periods of dramatic natural global cooling. The Maunder Minimum (about 1645-1715 A.D.) and Spörer Minimum (about 1420 to 1570 A.D.) are two examples of recent “Grand Minima” events and each period has been referred to as a Little Ice Age.



This threat is not a short-term problem but extends over several decades. Of the 27 “Grand Minima’s” that have occurred over the past 12,000 years: 30% lasted less than 50 years, 52% lasted between 50 and 100 years, and 18% lasted over 100 years. Of these, the longest was Spörer Minimum which lasted approximately 150 years.

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