I saw this a week ago, and totally forgot to post it on gimme-five.  According to a new study, solar activity is not responsible for climate change.  Solar activity driving global climate was one of the central claims of many anthropogenic climate change skeptics, so this is big news.

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 have risen.

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

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

Basically, it looks like the scientists measured solar output compared to Earth temperatures, in the same way that the authors of the film: ”The Great Global Warming Swindle” did.  I haven’t seen TGGWS, but the authors of this study allege they show solar output and temperature on a graph all the way through 1980, where they are highly correlated.  However, this study shows after 1980, solar activity and global temperatures diverge.  The implication is beyond 1980, humans are having such a large effect on global climate that it overshadows (pun intended) the sun’s effect.

I wish I could read the actual study rather than a BBC summary of it.  The summary seems convincing, but there could always be flaws.  What do gimme-five’s readers think?

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