Global Warming Deniers Favorite "Sunspot" Theory Refuted… Again

authordefault
on

If one were to reach into the grab bag of global warming skeptics’ favorite theories, one might pull out any number of speculation-laden papers and editorials regarding the supposed effect of solar activity on the Earth’sย climate.

For example, here’s an excerpt from an October 2007 presentation given by a member of the Exxon-funded Heartlandย Institute:

How long will the global warming alarmists be able to sustain the public hysteria without strongly rising temperatures? This will be a key factor in the short-term future of climate warming legislation.

Henrik Svensmark of the Danish Space Research Institute says cosmic rays are the link between the sunโ€™s variability and Earthโ€™s temperatures. More or fewer cosmic rays, depending on the strength of the โ€œsolar wind,โ€ seed more or fewer of the low, wet clouds that cool the Earth. Further experiments to document this impact are planned inย Europe.

The research to which the presentation refers is described in this paper by Svensmark, which, oddly, does not mention climate change, although the (non-peer-reviewed) press release for his researchย does:

The experimental results lend strong empirical support to the theory proposed a decade ago by Henrik Svensmark and Eigil Friis-Christensen that cosmic rays influence Earthโ€™s climate through their effect on cloud formation.

‘Many climate scientists have considered the linkages from cosmic rays to clouds to climate as unproven,โ€™ comments Eigil Friis-Christensen, who is now Director of the Danish National Space Center. โ€˜Some said there was no conceivable way in which cosmic rays could influence cloud cover. The [current research] now shows how they do so, and should help to put the cosmic-ray connection firmly onto the agenda of international climateย research.

(Click here for the Real Climate discussion of Svensmark’s et al.’sย claims.)

Unfortunately for the โ€œsunspots and cosmic rays, not humans, cause global warmingโ€ crowd, British scientists have just blown their claims out of the water. The BBC News website has the story:

Scientists have produced further compelling evidence showing that modern-day climate change is not caused by changes in the Sun’s activity.

The research contradicts a favored theory of climate โ€œscepticsโ€, that changes in cosmic rays coming to Earth determine cloudiness andย temperature.

The idea is that variations in solar activity affect cosmic rayย intensity.

But Lancaster University scientists found there has been no significant link between them in the last 20ย years.

Presenting their findings in the Institute of Physics journal, Environmental Research Letters, the UK team explain that they used three different ways to search for a correlation, and found virtuallyย none.

The article points out theย obvious:

This is the latest piece of evidence which at the very least puts the cosmic ray theory, developed by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark at the Danish National Space Center (DNSC), under very heavy pressure. Dr Svensmark’s idea formed a centrepiece of the controversial documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle.

The Great Global Warming Swindle was essentially a global warming skeptic-laden response to Al Gore’s fact-based documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. It came out in May 2007. Its focus on Svensmark’s theory is perplexing, given that three years earlier, scientistsย reported:

A new scientific study concludes that changes in the Sun’s output cannot be causing modern-day climate change.

It shows that for the last 20 years, the Sun’s output has declined, yet temperatures on Earth haveย risen.

It also shows that modern temperatures are not determined by the Sun’s effect on cosmic rays, as has beenย claimed.

Writing in the Royal Society’s journal Proceedings A, the researchers say cosmic rays may have affected climate in the past, but not theย present.

‘This should settle the debate,’ said Mike Lockwood, from the UK‘s Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, who carried out the new analysis together with Claus Froehlich from the World Radiation Center inย Switzerland.

In other words, there is repeated evidence from multiple researchers that global warming is caused by human activity. Not by sunspots.

Not by cosmicย rays.

What will it take to convince theย skeptics?

Related Posts

Analysis
on

Right wing YouTuber Tim Pool is the latest to own โ€˜climate peopleโ€™ with fake facts spouted by a grizzled TV oilman.

Right wing YouTuber Tim Pool is the latest to own โ€˜climate peopleโ€™ with fake facts spouted by a grizzled TV oilman.
on

Critics say the controversial GWP* method โ€“ which New Zealand appears close to adopting โ€“ is โ€œopen to significant abuseโ€.

Critics say the controversial GWP* method โ€“ which New Zealand appears close to adopting โ€“ is โ€œopen to significant abuseโ€.
on

Lord Moynihan of Chelsea, who holds shares in Shell and TotalEnergies, called the green transition a โ€œchildrenโ€™s crusadeโ€.

Lord Moynihan of Chelsea, who holds shares in Shell and TotalEnergies, called the green transition a โ€œchildrenโ€™s crusadeโ€.
on

Carrboro, N.C., accuses Duke of knowingly fueling the climate crisis for decades with harmful emissions, deception, delay, and "greenwashing."

Carrboro, N.C., accuses Duke of knowingly fueling the climate crisis for decades with harmful emissions, deception, delay, and "greenwashing."