Newsflash: Sun Affects Earth’s Climate

Regardless how many lemmings are willing to jump off the same cliff, there is much about this amazing planet that scientists and politicians don’t understand. Science should be allowed to freely explore those mysteries. But, as it has for centuries, politics walls off huge swaths of scientific research.

I have fought divine designers from forcing a political agenda on science (and will continue to do so as long as there is a god in heaven). With equal gusto, I fight zealots of anthropogenic global warming (“AGW”) from forcing their political agenda on science.

To deny AGW today is to have denied God a few centuries ago. Though an AGW denier might not be burned at the stake, there are those who seemingly wish it were otherwise. Such zealotry likely will change, as scientist reluctantly admit that – brace yourself – the Sun affects the Earth’s climate.

Sunspots strongly appear to affect the Earth’s climate. Less sun spots, the Earth cools. And, this is where it gets controversial: more sunspots, the Earth heats up.

Ice ages and mini ice ages correlate with less active sunspot cycles. Less sunspots; the Earth cooled. That’s an undisputed fact. Not believing in forcing science, I’m not going to say “cause/effect” – just direct correlation.

It’s also a fact that the period between 1940 and 2000 marked the most active sunspot cycles in over 1,000 years. So, maybe – just maybe – those active sunspot cycles had something to do with the run up in temperatures the Earth experienced during that period. But, it has been heresy, to even suggest that hypothesis. Why? Because it cuts against the theory of AGW. And AGW is a fact. Rather, a FACT! (Scientific facts are lowercase, since they are always subject to question and critique; political FACTS are all caps, since they are not subject to question and critique.).

It seems that more people are willing to admit that AGW is not a fact. It’s a theory. Yes, yes, I am aware that lemmings continue to unquestioningly leap off the AGW cliff. People’s devotion to their gods should never be doubted. But, for those interested in science, let’s give the AGW theory a quick test.

A good experiment would be to (1) turn off sunspots, (2) leave atmospheric CO2 alone, and (3) monitor the effect on global temperature. If temperatures continue to rise, sunspots can be ruled out as a cause of global warming. But, if temperatures drop . . ..

Around 2000, sunspot activity began to subside. Now, the sun is dormant. After the record level of sunspot activity ended, global temperatures began dropping. Now, they are plummeting. (Remember: carbon dioxide levels remain a constant). This year, we’ve seen the greatest drop in global temperatures ever recorded. –O.7 Celsius.

So much for AGW being the end-all, be-all of the story. Because AGW does have theoretical validity, it should be studied – as we require of all other scientific theories. And competing theories should be studied also. These things are complex. Nature is rarely as simple as simpletons would have it be.

To tell you how simplistic our current knowledge is, we don’t even know the mechanism by which sunspots affect global temperatures. Yet, some people want to say that their favored theory is FACT and that we should reorder society to accommodate it?! We are an interesting breed.

UPDATE: Exactly my point. In the comments, Cliff Lyon breaks from his war against BUSHITLER to demand that I retract my call for depoliticized science. Apparently, scientific inquiry into doctrine is irresponsible. The more things change, the more they stay the same.