Sun Not a Global Warming Culprit, Study Says

We are all running out of excuses

clipped from news.nationalgeographic.com Cyclical changes in the sun's energy output are not responsible for Earth's recent global warming, a new study asserts. Instead the findings put the blame for climate change squarely on human-created carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases—reinforcing the beliefs of most climate scientists. "Up until 1985 you could argue that the sun was [trending] in a direction that could have contributed to Earth's rising temperatures," said study author A. Mike Lockwood of the University of Southampton in Britain. Two decades ago, "it did a U-turn. If the sun had been warming the Earth, that should have come to an end, and we should have seen temperatures start to go the other way," Lockwood said.