02/08/07 Sunspots and global warming

Washington Ag February 8, 2007 Farmers attending the Pacific Northwest Farm Forum in Spokane this week heard from a climatologist that there is no doubt that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are contributing to global warming. But human activity is not the only cause and not even the major cause of the warming of the earth. In fact, Doctor Art Douglas of Creighton University told the forum that research by Dutch scientists on sunspots leads them to propose that a shortened interval between maximum sunspot activity so closely matches warmer temperatures that almost all of the global warming can be attributed to the change in the periodicity of the sunspot cycle. Douglas himself believes the sunspot cycle is responsible for about half of the increase in temperature the planet has seen since the 1800's. He also points out that this effect from solar activity is occurring simultaneously with a natural cycle of ocean heating. So; Douglas: "There is not doubt that if humans continue to increase the amount of CO-2 put into the atmosphere that eventually it will overcome the amount of energy change from the sun or the change from in oceans. But I would say so far we are not at this point yet. I would say that the sun and change in cycles in the oceans are still just as powerful as the change of the CO-2 that's been caused by humans." I'm Bob Hoff.