The Sun Isn’t Responsible for Climate Change

I recently wrote an article for Wired Science about how there doesn’t appear to be a link between cosmic rays and global warming. Now another argument against human-created global warming has fallen to the wayside: increasing temperatures from the Sun.

It turns out energy output from the Sun has actually been decreasing over the last two decades. And during this period, temperatures across the planet have been steadily rising.

The research was published in the Royal Society’s journal Proceedings A, entitled Recent oppositely directed trends in solar
climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature. The report covers not only trends in solar output, but also deals with decreasing trends in cosmic rays as well.

The Sun varies on an 11-year cycle between periods of high and low activity. But above this, there’s a longer term trend. For most of the 20th century, output from the Sun was slowly and steadily rising. But in 1985, that trend reversed, with solar output slowly declining. Global temperatures here on Earth continued climbing, unaffected.

If it’s not the Sun, and it’s not cosmic rays, what’s left? Oh right… humans.

Original Source: Royal Society journal Proceedings A