Solar Flares Contribute to Global Warming?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sun_output_030320.html

I'd be interested in you all's opinion on this theory. :)

(Edit: to post the link, sorry, I posted that dumb pic by accident!)

Unfortunately, the handful of "scientists" pushing this canard tend to receive much of their funding from oil companies. Indeed, there is a direct relationship between a given researcher's enthusiasm for this "theory" and the amount of dough shoveled at them by ExxonMobil.

...and it probably did eliminate the last major ice age 4K years ago.

But it's pretty clear even taking this into account global warming is real, is going to get worse unless we do something NOW,and that humans are 99% responsible for throwing the carbon cycle off.

Blame it on the Sun.

"This is gonna go over large, J. D."

Why didn't I think of this?

(tongue placed firmly in cheek)

I think Sol is pissed

Just debating someone online who threw this and a few other links up.

Some of the best lies are coated in elements of truth.
There is some additional warming due to recent increases in solar radiation.
But all things being equal as the planet became warmer the amount or IR radiation coming from the Earth should increase as well. However while the output of the sun has increased slightly the earths ability to radiate out energy has been compromised as well.

It's like stoking up the old wood stove while adding attic insulation at the same time.

We happened to develop a "sophisticated" technical civilization right at the time when the Earth was due to be warmer than average. We have become one part of that warming trend.

The Sun has always been a key in the Earth's heat balance; there's nothing Republican or KKKorporate about that. The problem is entirely one of spin. They want us to believe that global warming is ordained by God or some such, and that they're off the hook for decades of stupid decisions and careless stewardship of the Earth.

It's like staying out without a shirt on during a hot, sunny summer day. When the sun goes down and you're in pain with a bad sunburn, who do you blame -- the Sun for shining, or yourself for being stupid?

--p!

and look at what's out on the web. I ran across this:

Russian academic says CO2 not to blame for global warming
14:30 | 15/ 01/ 2007

ST. PETERSBURG, January 15 (RIA Novosti) - Rising levels of carbon dioxide and other gases emitted through human activities, believed by scientists to trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, are an effect rather than the cause of global warming, a prominent Russian scientist said Monday.

Habibullo Abdusamatov, head of the space research laboratory at the St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo Observatory, said global warming stems from an increase in the sun's activity. His view contradicts the international scientific consensus that climate change is attributable to the emission of greenhouse gases generated by industrial activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

"Global warming results not from the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but from an unusually high level of solar radiation and a lengthy - almost throughout the last century - growth in its intensity," Abdusamatov told RIA Novosti in an interview.

"It is no secret that when they go up, temperatures in the world's oceans trigger the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So the common view that man's industrial activity is a deciding factor in global warming has emerged from a misinterpretation of cause and effect relations."

{snip} http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070115/59078992.html

Thoughts and comments?

You need look no further than realclimate.org

I thought of putting a disclaimer on my post that said "not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV." :)