There's an excellent writeup on this that's just been posted today:
Of Mountains and Molehills
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/9/878/93026/133/472774
It notes that an article from Michael Masher of Daily Tech will
be forthcoming there next week.
The entire article is very well-written, and provides another useful
introduction to the subject. On the highly dubious claim that changes
in the sun are somehow responsible, the author writes:
First, it's Baloney. We've been watching the sun closely with
modern telescopes for over a century. It's been examined in minute
detail at every wavelength for several decades. Stellar models for
stars like our sun suggest it will slowly heat up, roughly 10%
every one-billion years. It faithfully exhibits an eleven year
sunspot cycle, but to the best of our measurement ability, that
cycle has a minimal impact on terrestrial climate and does not
explain the observed long term warming trend. Outside of that,
maybe the sun did some unusual things in the remote past. But
since we've been paying close attention, we just do not see the
sun brightening -- to the great benefit of every living thing
on the planet I might add.
Second, it's no coincidence there's sunlight beaming into our
SUV in the image. The Sun: That's what drives the climate,
it's the engine. For crying out loud, it's the first thing
researchers have plugged into models and forecasts since the
dawn of climate science and weather forecasting. To seriously
contend that thousands of climate scientists just up and forgot
about the sun's fundamental role on earth's climate for the
last forty-years, or that they don't take the best, most up to
date solar data gathered from dozens of surface and space-based
observatories into account, is every bit as ludicrous as claiming
NASA mission planners forgot about gravity.
Lastly, and this is the clincher (Or should be for anyone with
the mental agility of the average five-year old), if we do see
the sun suddenly embark on sustained, highly unprecedented
warming binge, then I have some frightening news: we are in
the deepest shit of all time. That would rank as about the most
significant, utterly goddamn terrifying event in human history.
And were it true, saying it doesn't matter if we jump in and
heat the planet like a sauna because, hey, the sun has gone
whacky hot on us, is unusually, pathologically twisted 'logic'
even for the nuttiest wingnut. It's akin to saying the best way
to deal with an oncoming F-5 tornado is to sprint straight into
the vortex. We can't control the sun, so controlling the thermal
properties of our air, water, and land would be our sole option
for survival on the surface of the planet if the sun suddenly
starts heating up significantly.
---Rsk
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