Maunder Minimum

For example, there was a 60-year period between 1650 and 1710 when there was little or no sunspot activity at all.

This is called the Maunder Minimum, after the astronomer who discovered it.

The cause remains a mystery, though some astronomers have theorized that it's normal for stars to occasionally go through such long dormant periods.

At the solar maximum, the sun's magnetic poles actually flip.

And that was when there was very little going on on the sun.

They call it the Maunder Minimum.

It's all there for you.

For everybody.

In 1670, Salem was in the grip of a real climate phenomenon known as the Little Ice Age.

1670 fell right in, at the beginning of the Maunder Minimum, 1645 to 1715, which was the absolute coldest, darkest, and most severe stretch of this mini Ice Age.

During this time, the sun entered a period of extreme inactivity, where sunspots virtually disappeared.

This caused a noticeable drop in temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere, leading to bizarre and brutal weather patterns in New England.

It interprets the bright sunlight that it's seeing in, you know, day to day outside.

It interprets all of that as, "Ah, it's warm out, and so it makes sense for me to make a baby because we have an abundance of resources." If you look at what happens, say, in an ice age or a Maunder Minimum, resources become more scarce, and physiologically it makes the most sense to have fewer children in times of scarcity, lack.

That means cold, lack of light, etc.

Okay, so I look at the light.

Think of the time George Washington and Valley Forge, that was in the depths of what was called the Little Ice Age.

And there was a period of time there with a several-year period called the Maunder Minimum that was really, really, really cold.

And life was not pleasant, but then it started warming up and we're experiencing that continued warming today.

So I say, welcome the warmth and fear the cold.