Don't Blame Global Warming on the Sun

There have been some voices lately blaming global warming on the increased solar activity, however this claim is mostly based on pure speculation rather than scientific analysis, says a recent study verifying the role of the Sun in the current climatic changes which take place all over the world. Computer simulations become completely irrelevant in the case of the warming effect of Earth, and historical data takes over, showing that human activity is solely responsible for the deteriorating condition of our planet's clime.

The Sun gives us light and warmth, but most of this energy is dissipated through different processes to balance it through actions such as ocean currents, quantity of snow and ice, and even by the mere movement of Earth through space. Most of the researchers believe that the global warming process is determined by human activities, such as the release of carbon dioxide, methane and a series of other gases into the atmosphere.

There is a certain probability that before the arise of the industrial age, the Earth's clime could have been greatly influenced by the solar radiation and may still be, by delivering more heat than usual. Albeit since 1955 geologists Mike Lockwood of University of Southampton has been keeping a record of the solar activity, such as sunspots, magnetic activity and cosmic rays.

While comparing the data related to the solar activity with natural weather events such as El Nino, or processes that have a major effect on the atmospheric conditions, such as the eruption of a volcano, Lockwood revealed that the influence of the Sun is only 3 percent in relation to the action of the greenhouse gases of the natural clime cycles.

"One problem that crops up [in the climate discussion] is that scientists use complex models that nonspecialists don't understand and therefore don't trust," said Lockwood. University of Oxford geophysicist Daithi Stone agrees. "This is a solid look at whether global temperature increases are being driven by changes in the brightness of the Sun, suggesting that there is no way that this can be the case," said Stone.



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