[cogitator]

The lure of solar forcing

for your consideration.

[AaronInCarolina]

Thanks for the link. I read the whole thread. I actually read RealClimate quite frequently (but as I'm sure you know, I am quite impervious to their arguments; ;-)

Naturally, I cherry picked the responses for ones I liked, and this was the one that resonated best with me:

Gavin Schmitt says:
"However, it is also clear that since about 1980, while the total solar radiation, its ultraviolet component, and the cosmic ray intensity all exhibit the 11-year solar periodicity, there has otherwise been no significant increase in their values. In contrast, the Earth has warmed up considerably within this time period. This means that the Sun is not the cause of the present global warming."

Someone is forgetting some very basic thermodynamics. The heat source may have reached a constant temperature, but the Earth isn't necessarily at equilibrium with the new warmer environment yet.

Comment by Awatson — 21 Jul 2005

This echoes my earlier point about a time lag in response to solar irradience changes.