Ponder the Maunder
Kristen Byrnes wrote a long article last year about global warming and solar radiation. She comes to the conclusion that the observed variations in global temperature are not due to changes in the level of atmospheric CO2, but are instead due to the changing solar radiation coming from the sun.
The Maunder Minimum was an observed minimum in sunspot activity that corresponded to the Little Ice Age in Europe and the world. Instead of attributing global temperature increases to the burning of fossil fuel, this paper and website attempts to show that global temperatures correspond to changes in solar flux. If you have some time to read a very detailed presentation, check this out.
It just seems obvious to me that the premise of this paper is correct. Even Homer Simpson could understand this: “Sun heats up, earth heats up. Sun cools down, earth cools down.”
The energy that drives the weather events in our atmosphere all comes from the sun. It is known that the energy output of the sun is not constant. If the sun were to disappear the atmosphere of earth would condense and the planet would be a dark, frozen ball of ice. In five billion years when the sun goes red giant, earth will probably burn up and evaporate into space.
It’s my opinion that global warming is a political issue designed to scare people and get them ready for the time when fossil fuel will be rationed and tightly controlled. It is a fact that petroleum reserves are running out. End of the world scenarios are popular in the entertainment industry. Instead of trying to scare people that the world is going to end, scientists should be spending their time trying to think up new sources of energy so we do not have to rely on a limited resource.
It agree, but not on 100 %
Good argument: “sun heats up, earth heats up”. But since the modern global warming trend started in the 70’s, the sun has showed little to no long term trend. If anything, satellite measurements indicate a slight cooling:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming.htm
So what’s the logical conclusion of “sun not heating up, earth heats up”?
Interesting theory. Personally I think the CO2 (and human careless behaviors) can have an effect or worsen the situation, but it is not the only cause.
After all, where does the name Greenland come from? It was covered with grass, almost Ireland style. Not exactly the same Greenland we are used to think of.
SW Greenland is still green, and most of the rest of it is covered in glacier that dates to before humans reached the Americas. During the last interglacial period, 116,000-130,000 years ago, the glacier shrunk but didn’t go away; the Medieval Warm Period (approx. 1000-1400CE) made things a little greener, but not as much as the interglacial period. Here are the articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_warm_period
Interesting the co2 measurement in the ice cores do follow the solar insolation very well but tend to part in recent decades. So if we do get less solar insolation because of less sun spots it might be a good time to see how much cooler the world gets. The worry is if CO2 does have an input and we ignore it and in thirty years times the sun spots come back, oops. Having said that maybe the governments(s) have been preparing for a long time to make the have nots in this country and abroad put up with less so they the haves can continue with their lifestyles but i don’t allways know if politicians are capable of thinking ahead. In practise their not and its all a bit conspiritorial.