The heaviest snowfall in more than a decade has left at least 21 people dead in Iran - some buried under avalanches, some frozen to death and others killed in traffic accidents, state media reported Monday. As much as 22 inches of snow has fallen in areas of northern and central Iran since Saturday, said meteorologist Ali Abedini. The storm has forced schools and government offices to close, blocking major roads and leading to the cancellation of all domestic and international flights.

At least 21 people have been killed and 88 others injured ... as a result of heavy snow, state-run radio reported. Some died of the severe cold, some were buried under avalanches and others died after their cars overturned on snow-covered roads. The cold weather has caused problems for residents in western Iran, with about a dozen towns suffering from gas cuts due to a surge in demand and a cut in gas exports from Turkmenistan. See photos here.

UPDATE: The first snow in 100 years fell on Baghdad, Iraq today Friday, January 11, 3008.

UPDATE: The cold reached into Saudi Arabia. and snow fell in the northern areas is what is called the coldest winter in 20 years.  Meanwhile freezing weather killed over 100 in Afghanistan.

There is not doubt the lack of volcanic activity played a major role in the warming trend of the last decade. ICECAP’s Joseph D’Aleo explained in a recent article how volcanoes contributed to multidecadal temperature variability since the 19th century.

Therefore, we should pay a closer attention to volcanic activity around the world. In the first day of 2008 the Llaima volcano in southern Chile erupted (photo below from El Mercurio newspaper), sending up a huge plume of smoke and coating the surrounding wilderness park with ash. (Note the Smithsonian USGS Weekly Volcano Summary indicated ash reached a height of 41,000 feet). An ash cloud moved to the Province of Nequen im Argentina. The volcano is in the Araucania region in southern Chile, inside Conguillio National Park and about 50 miles from the city of Temuco. In recent days, activity at the Llaima Mountain subsided.

See full size image here

This Saturday (01/05) the huge Popocatepetl volcano, 40 miles south of Mexico City, expelled a 5 mile high cloud of smoke (water vapor and ashes), the highest in several years. Authorities do not expect any imminent eruption, but warning levels were raised. As RSS MSU and UAH MSU data indicate a cooling trend in the planet without any major volcanic eruption, can you imagine the effects of a Pinatubo event nowadays ?

See full size image here

Icecap Note: Thanks Eugenio for these startling images and keeping us up to date on this activity. Though these were ‘moderate’ events that are unlikely to have long lasting or major effects, we need as Eugenio stated to be vigilant to global volcanism and any strong eruption like Pinatubo and El Chichon that injected aerosols into the stable stratosphere 80,000-100,000 feet and more high and had global cooling effects that lasted 3 years or so.

In one of his incomparable essays, C. S. Lewis criticized man’s often insolent determination to control the forces of nature. He remarked that man’s control of nature was frequently nothing more than man’s control over other men - with nature as the instrument. Nothing explains the mad obsession with global warming quite so pointedly. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the global warming panic has little to do with temperature change and everything to do with man’s control of other men with climate as the instrument.

The global warming hoax is a dream come true for the global bullies intent on imposing their repressive regulatory regime upon a willing world of useful idiots. With an ozone hole here and a stranded polar bear there, here an oink there an oink, everywhere an oink, oink, Old Napoleon Gore had a farm; and pretty soon all the animals were explaining to themselves why the rules were constantly changing to advance the agenda of the swine who had assumed control in the house. The “chosen” go to Bali. The rest of us schmucks go meekly to our secure stalls in the barn. As the self-appointed dungeon masters softly close the iron gates, the plastic faces in Hollywood form a cheering chorus line. As we labor under increasingly onerous regulations, faint-hearted academics fearful of losing their grants gravely announce the absolute necessity of the new rules.

There are signs, however, that the tide is running out for popular support of Napoleon Gore’s contrived crisis. Read more here.

Cal Thomas’ editorial column, “Warming Is Gospel to Secular Fundamentalists,” prompts this column as a follow-up. In my area of expertise (chemistry), review articles on various subjects contain considerable data to educate and convince the reader that conclusions are justified. This is not so with the many review articles and books I have read on global warming.

Data, numbers, graphs, trends, etc., are generally missing in supposedly scientific reports on global warming. These articles are usually long on opinions and short on hard data. Phrases such as “scientists agree that ...” scientists doubt that ...” do not belong in a scientific article. There are more data in Michael Crichton’s novel “State of Fear” than in all the global warming articles combined that I have read. What puzzles me is the reluctance of climatologists to provide scientific data supporting their dire predictions of the near future if we don’t change our ways. I will continue to read on this subject until I am convinced that the terrible predictions have some merit.

I should point out that I have no ax to grind. My interest has been to educate myself on global warming. Instead, I am left in a state of frustration because so many questions remain unanswered. Read full opinion here.

Michael F. Farona of Haines City is professor of chemistry, emeritus, for the University of Akron and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Stock up on fur coats and felt boots! This is my paradoxical advice to the warm world.

Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases.

The real reasons for climate changes are uneven solar radiation, terrestrial precession (that is, axis gyration), instability of oceanic currents, regular salinity fluctuations of the Arctic Ocean surface waters, etc. There is another, principal reason-solar activity and luminosity. The greater they are the warmer is our climate. Astrophysics knows two solar activity cycles, of 11 and 200 years. Both are caused by changes in the radius and area of the irradiating solar surface. The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer.

Carbon dioxide cannot be bad for the climate. On the contrary, it is food for plants, and so is beneficial to life on Earth. Bearing out this point was the Green Revolution - the phenomenal global increase in farm yields in the mid-20th century. Numerous experiments also prove a direct proportion between harvest and carbon dioxide concentration in the air. Carbon dioxide is not to blame for global climate change. Solar activity is many times more powerful than the energy produced by the whole of humankind. Man’s influence on nature is a drop in the ocean.

Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute.