Cosmic Rays and Global Warming

Overly Critical Guy writes "The former editor of New Scientist has written an article in the TimesOnline suggesting that cosmic rays may affect global climate. The author criticizes the UN's recent global warming report, noting several underreported trends it doesn't account for, such as increasing sea-ice in the Southern Ocean. He describes an experiment by Henrik Svensmark showing a relation between atmospheric cloudiness and atomic particles coming in from exploded stars. In the basement of the Danish National Space Center in 2005, Svensmark's team showed that electrons from cosmic rays caused cloud condensation. Svensmark's scenario apparently predicts several unexplained temperature trends from the warmer trend of the 20th century to the temporary drop in the 1970s, attributed to changes in the sun's magnetic field affecting the amount of cosmic rays entering the atmosphere."

Comments

cult of global warming

[timmarhy]

oh noes he discredited the cult of global warming! he MUST be in the pocket of big business.

Re:cult of global warming

[fyngyrz]

I hereby revoke your tree-hugging license for use of facts without intention to mislead. Please report to your neighborhood global warming organization for immediate compositing.

Re:cult of global warming

[elrous0]

For those of you skeptical of the powerful effects of cosmic radiation, don't forget what happened to Dr. Reed Richards.

-Eric

Re:cult of global warming

[AJWM]

*every* so-called modern Galileo can't actually be one, because a universe probably can't exist in which every whacked-out idea proposed by all of them is simultaneously correct.

I don't know about that, have you looked at string theory lately?

wait!

[Simon Garlick]

I for one refuse to comment on this subject until Michael Crichton tells me what is right!

Re:wait!

[edwardpickman]

I prefer to wait for the movie to come out. I'd like to have Stephen Speilberg's opinion as well.

It's Pirates I tell Ye Laddy

[goombah99]

It's well know that the decline of seafaring pirates correlates the rise of global warming me hearties. sunspots too

Re:It's Pirates I tell Ye Laddy

[maxwell demon]

Indeed, it also explains why 1998 was the hottest year up to now. In 1999, the first version of Napster was released, which enhanced piracy and therefore reduced the temperature.

FSM link

[goombah99]

It surely be pirates, jim lad. Never a truer tale been told. All this shows is that pirate decline may be associated with cosmic rays.

Re:FSM link

[Walt Dismal]

It can't be pirates, because my friends from the planet Xenon told me it is indeed cosmic rays. See, when they visited me last month, they said "Your planet is being warmed because cosmic radiation is affecting the atmosphere." I said "Wow! You came all the way here to tell me that?" But the big gray one said "No, actually, we came because our scientists also said the PS3 was the most advanced computer on Earth, and we wanted to buy one, but there was a big line and Circuit City was all sold out when we tried." I asked, "The same scientists who told you about cosmic rays?" and he said "Yes. But we got a raincheck from the clerk. And then he sold us something called an 'iPod'. He said it was cooler than an anal probe."

I have a few doubts about the cosmic ray advice, frankly. But, yes, iPods are cooler than an anal probe.

Re:FSM link

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, the difference between, say, Christianity and FSM, is one is a system of belief based on a man being revived from the dead, turning water into wine, becoming flesh and blood out of biscuits and wine thousands of years later, that all of one man's ancestors are born in sin, etc. The other one is just made-up bullcrap.

Re:Incorrect.

[Marcos Eliziario]

Apparently he doesn't need to. At least he thinks so, as long as the consensus is with him. Who are you to criticize him? are you some of those deniers who insist on old fashionable things as reproducible results?

Re:Incorrect.

[jmv]

Just wait and we will hear theories that dinosaurs have caused current global warming.

Considering that the main cause is CO2 from fossil fuel, this statement is actually not too far off :-)

So...

[Geeselegs]

infrared radiation from the sun causes global warming... Who'd have guessed

Re:USE=brain

[evilviper]

"The important thing is not to stop questioning."

Umm... What?

Re:USE=brain

[evilviper]

"The important thing is not to stop questioning."

Umm... What?

Stop that...

Why?

I'll cite this one

[Opportunist]

the next time my boss looks suspiciously at me when I blame the server outage on sunspot activity.

SUV!

[Anonymous Coward]

My SUV puts out more heat than all those wimpy cosmic rays. The New York times said so!