New analysis counters claims that solar activity is linked to global warming

It has been one of the central claims of those who challenge the idea that human activities are to blame for global warming. The planet's climate has long fluctuated, say the climate sceptics, and current warming is just part of that natural cycle - the result of variation in the sun's output and not carbon dioxide emissions.

But a new analysis of data on the sun's output in the last 25 years of the 20th century has firmly put the notion to rest. The data shows that even though the sun's activity has been decreasing since 1985, global temperatures have continued to rise at an accelerating rate.

a huge similarity between liberal positions on competition and conservative positions on the evironment. Both are motivated by fear.

Maybe not fear so much as arrogance. I've yet to see any big consumer shift from heating appliances to air-conditioning or warm clothes to light clothing. Last year when I told a friend of mine about this, she ran right out to buy a Prius. Not that she needed to save money on rising gas prices, but she wanted to make a "statement".

Talk about convincing people --if anyone could show me any serious purchasing shift caused by increased temperatures, then that would go a long way to prove to me that there was any generally accepted belief that the world is warming. If it were really happening in the real world and all the climate advocates really believed what they were saying, then it should show up in how people spent their own money on themselves.

For decades I worked with with US government meteorology people and none of us who actually worked in the section ever saw anything that pointed to any clear long term temperature trend. Apparently outside of politics neither has anyone else.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m all for clean technologies, reducing carbon dioxide, CFCs, whatever. But this...

>>I know we’re dumping thousands of tons of shit into the atmosphere every day<<

Yes, we are. It still amounts to essentially ZERO in terms of the entire atmosphere as it relates to greenhouse gases. A thimble full in a lake. It’s simply not a meaningful amount when compared to water vapor.

That might be true. Even the experts are not sure about the consequences of our actions (see my post #337, the article by Shaviv). All I know, as a layman, is that what we're doing is not good.

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