Sun may be causing 'Global-Warming' -

New Scientist ^ | November 2, 2003

[UnklGene]

Sun may be causing 'Global-Warming' -

Sun more active than for a millennium

09:00 02 November 03

The Sun is more active now than it has been for a millennium. The realisation, which comes from a reconstruction of sunspots stretching back 1150 years, comes just as the Sun has thrown a tantrum. Over the last week, giant plumes of have material burst out from our star's surface and streamed into space, causing geomagnetic storms on Earth.

The dark patches on the surface of the Sun that we call sunspots are a symptom of fierce magnetic activity inside. Ilya Usoskin, a geophysicist who worked with colleagues from the University of Oulu in Finland and the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, has found that there have been more sunspots since the 1940s than for the past 1150 years.

Sunspot activity Sunspot observations stretch back to the early 17th century, when the telescope was invented. To extend the data farther back in time, Usoskin's team used a physical model to calculate past sunspot numbers from levels of a radioactive isotope preserved in ice cores taken from Greenland and Antarctica.

Global warming

Ice cores provide a record of the concentration of beryllium-10 in the atmosphere. This is produced when high-energy particles from space bombard the atmosphere, but when the Sun is active its magnetic field protects the Earth from these particles and levels of beryllium-10 are lower.

There was already tantalising evidence that beryllium-10 is scarcer now than for a very long time, says Mike Lockwood, from the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford.

But he told New Scientist that when he saw the data converted to sunspot numbers he thought, "why the hell didn't I do this?" It makes the conclusion very stark, he says. "We are living with a very unusual sun at the moment."

The findings may stoke the controversy over the contribution of the Sun to global warming. Usoskin and his team are reluctant to be dragged into the debate, but their work will probably be seized upon by those who claim that temperature rises over the past century are the result of changes in the Sun's output (New Scientist, print edition, 12 April 2003). The link between the Sun's magnetic activity and the Earth's climate is, however, unclear.

[Steely Tom]

Duh.

(steely)

[per loin]

Nonsense. Only a right wing fanatic would believe that the sun has any effect on the earth's temperature.

[Consort]

Any global warming caused by the sun would be negated at night. Everybody knows that.

[JoJo Gunn]

And it only shines on one half at a time.... ;)

[evolved_rage]

SUVs cause sunspots????

[laredo44]

Hasn't the sun signed that Kyoto treaty yet?

[ex-Texan]

DUH! . . . Twenty years of increased solar activity trumps 70 years of carbon dioxide emissions from fossile fuels in my personal opinion.

[freedumb2003]

The Bush tax cut has caused the Sun to be over-stimulated. Global Warming is Bush's fault.

[massadvj]

Global warming cannot possibly be caused by the sun. How can the liberal elite advance a political agenda to reverse thousands of years of progress, gain political power for themselves, and acquire ever more precious resources of government if global warming is caused by the sun? C'mon now. Get real.

Now go back and drink the mainstream media kool-aid. The sky is falling and it's all our fault for driving SUV's. Only right-minded trial lawyers and politicians can save us from certain doom.

Which reminds me. My wife and I went to see "Runaway Jury" last night. Talk about liberal manipulation. Hollywood is not even trying to disguise it anymore. Their desperation is encouraging, at least.

[laredo44]

Ice cores provide a record of the concentration of beryllium-10 in the atmosphere. This is produced when high-energy particles from space bombard the atmosphere, but when the Sun is active its magnetic field protects the Earth from these particles and levels of beryllium-10 are lower.

Are these guys sure? I heard the low Beryllium-10 counts were caused by using plastic instead of paper at supermarkets.

[Prime Choice]

Won't be very long before the greenies insist that the sun be relocated since it's so dangerous having an uncontrolled thermonuclear reactor that's only one astronomical unit away from Earth. Just wait...it'll happen.

[11B3]

No $hit? You mean the SUN actually warms the planet???? Who'd have thought it possible?

[MissAmericanPie]

And Christians, Revelation 16:8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial on the sun, and power was given the sun to scorch men with fire.

And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give Him glory.

I'm not saying that this is or is not begining to happen now, but it will happen sometime in the future.

[laredo44]

My wife and I went to see "Runaway Jury" last night.

Do you know if the jury stayed at the same place the Texas Democrats stay when they are trying to avoid their duty in Austin?

[FourPeas]

Riiiiight. Next you'll be telling us the earth isn't flat.

[Held_to_Ransom]

This is ridiculous. Everyone knows the sun is essentially the most stable and consistant element in the universe. There's nothing going on in the sun that could ever chain reaction out of control, even for an instant.

[trek]

This is a damn funny thread!

[Held_to_Ransom]

The foolish suggestion that this also explains the arctic holes in the Ozone could never be anything but a mere coincidence.