Blame Volcanoes: Solar Variation Didn't Cause Global Warming - And It Didn't Cause The Lack Of It Either
Sunday, December 22, 2013 - 18:10
in Earth & Climate
Solar variation has not strongly influenced climate change, according to a paper which seeks to overturn a widely held scientific view that lengthy periods of warm and cold weather in the past might have been caused by periodic fluctuations in solar activity. Research in a narrow time period - the last 1,000 years - examined the causes of climate change in the northern hemisphere and found that until the year 1800, the key driver of periodic changes in climate was volcanic eruptions. These tend to prevent sunlight from reaching the Earth, causing cool, drier weather. Since 1900, greenhouse gases have been the primary cause of climate change. read more