Global Warming:Solar variability

[slamlander]

It looks like they're finally starting to look at alternative causation if, for no other reason than to shut guys like me up. They seem to have pretty well put paid to the Solar Variability theory. However it clashes with the Zurich Observations of 2004. This shows that since 1980 Solar output has gone down and that there was even a Cosmic Ray

Comments

[ozanbaba]

maybe it's just earth's climate.

I'm not entirely convinced by the Vulcanism suggestion.

[tomo2k]

Yes, volcanoes emit significant amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases - but they also emit significant amount of dust and ash, which have a cooling effect.

For example, there was a Big Freeze when Krakatoa went kablooie - the Thames completely froze and the Victorians had some pretty cool skating parties.

My gut instinct is that vulcanism is approximately neutral - a nudge upwards one year, nudge downwards the next.

There's no reason to suspect that the general trend be in any particular direction.

That said, solar input is highly variable, and there will be a significant thermal inertia that dampens the main solar cycle input.
On top of that, the Earth's orbit is not circular, and I've no idea what stage in the precession we currently are - close or far...

But human activities are definitely having an effect on the global climate - the only question is which activities are most significant.
I doubt that CO2 alone is significant!

Re: I'm not entirely convinced by the Vulcanism suggestion.

[slamlander]

Actually, every reoprt I've seen says that CO2 is less than 10% of effective GHGs. The other 90% is water vapor, a fact carefully glossed over in most reports. The fact that the gloss over it, to focus on CO2, aggrivates my suspicious nature.