Solar variations - chief suspect in global warming

Contrary to widely held opinion - the science is far from settled.

Lawrence Solomon’s ‘The Deniers’ series in the National Post has highlighted the work of several scientists doing work on how changes in solar output influence climate change on earth. Today in ‘Part XIV' of the series he features Sami Solanki, a researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Some very interesting points:


The "science is settled"? Hardly!

Here's Dr. Solanki's presentation on the Sun/climate connection. It's excellent!

Earth hasn't been this hot in 8,000 years and, he predicts, the hot spell will carry on for a few more decades before the sun turns down the heat.
"The sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures."
Dr. Solanki gives cold comfort to those who claim that global warming took off with the Industrial Revolution...an almost perfect correlation between solar cycles and air temperatures over the land masses in the Northern hemisphere, going back to the mid 19th century.
He also believes that evidence that greenhouse gases have played a larger role in climate change may some day turn up...however, he hasn't seen anything compelling that undermines his own findings.
Dr. Solanki is especially taken with the work of the Danish National Space
Agency, which demonstrated the dramatic effect that cosmic rays can have on cloud formation, and thus temperatures -- "the mechanism is just too beautiful to ignore..."
Dr. Solanki's recommendation: more research, and lots of it....Until the research is in, he believes, the story of what drives climate change remains unknown.