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

[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!

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.

[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

I'll cite this one

[Opportunist]

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