This is a compelling look at the role of solar activity in global warming. Others have noted the connection between sunspots and warming without explaining any possible mechanism to explain it. This video does offer that connection.
While I still think that positive feedbacks are going to do a number on our climate, this is the best alternative view of why current models are not as accurate as they should be.
Just more moldy old denier cult bullshit.
Scientists can directly measure solar irradiance - the amount of energy from the sun that reaches out planet, measured in Watts per square meter - with satellite instrumentation above the top of the atmosphere. There have been no increases in solar output. In fact, it has declined slightly.
The world science community is quite clear that it is the 45% increase in a powerful greenhouse gas, CO2, that is causing the rapid abrupt global temperature increases, not the sun.
The
George Marshall Institute was a rightwing front group for corporate interests, including a lot of support from the fossil fuel industry to deny human caused global warming. They were funded by EXXON, the Koch brothers, Peabody Energy, and a host of far-rightwing foundations with ties to the fossil fuel industry. In addition to working to prevent or delay any meaningful steps to deal with the climate change crisis, the Marshall Institute also worked hard to create a "
false perception of scientific uncertainty over the negative effects of second-hand smoke, the carcinogenic nature of tobacco smoking, the existence of acid rain, and on the evidence between CFCs and ozone depletion." One of the techniques these corporate sponsored denialist groups use is to find some fringe scientists that none of the real scientists agree with and tout them as some kind of idiotic rebuttal of the overwhelming scientific consensus on human caused global warming. Their aim is to create doubt and paralyze policy making.
Here's a little more about them from the link.
In 1989, at the same time the George C. Marshall Institute initiated its “Climate Change Policy Program,” the GMI released a report arguing that “cyclical variations in the intensity of the sun would offset any climate change associated with elevated greenhouse gases.” Although it was refuted by the IPCC, the report was used by the Bush Sr. Administration to argue for a more lenient climate change policy. [2]
In a 2009 essay, former Executive Director Matthew B. Crawford had this to say about his initial experience with the Marshall Institute (emphasis added):
“… certain perversities became apparent as I settled into the job. It sometimes required me to reason backward, from desired conclusion to suitable premise. The organization had taken certain positions, and there were some facts it was more fond of than others. As its figurehead, I was making arguments I didn't fully buy myself. Further, my boss seemed intent on retraining me according to a certain cognitive style — that of the corporate world, from which he had recently come. This style demanded that I project an image of rationality but not indulge too much in actual reasoning.” [4]
Newsweek has described the George C. Marshall Institute as a “central cog in the denial machine,” and Naomi Oreskes has said that the Institute has lobbied politically to create a false perception of scientific uncertainty over the negative effects of second-hand smoke, the carcinogenic nature of tobacco smoking, the existence of acid rain, and on the evidence between CFCs and ozone depletion. [5] [22]
Peabody Energy's 2016 bankruptcy documents revealed the George C. Marshall Institute as a creditor, reports the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD/PRWatch). [56]
While the available bankruptcy documents do not list the scale or dates of funding, they outline Peabody Energy's financial ties to a large network of groups promoting climate change denial. [57]
Prominent individuals appearing in the documents include climate deniers Willie Soon, Richard Lindzen, Roy Spencer and Richard Berman. The long list of organizations also includes groups such as Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council, CFACT, Institute for Energy Research, State Policy Network, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and dozens more. [58]
The Guardian also analysed and reported on the Peabody bankruptcy findings: [59]
“These groups collectively are the heart and soul of climate denial,” said Kert Davies, founder of the Climate Investigation Center, who has spent 20 years tracking funding for climate denial. “It’s the broadest list I have seen of one company funding so many nodes in the denial machine.”
The company’s filings reveal funding for a range of organisations which have fought Barack Obama’s plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and denied the very existence of climate change. […]
Among Peabody’s beneficiaries, the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change has insisted – wrongly – that carbon emissions are not a threat but “the elixir of life” while the American Legislative Exchange Council is trying to overturn Environmental Protection Agency rules cutting emissions from power plants. Meanwhile, Americans for Prosperity campaigns against carbon pricing. The Oklahoma chapter was on the list. […]
“The breadth of the groups with financial ties to Peabody is extraordinary. Thinktanks, litigation groups, climate scientists, political organisations, dozens of organisations blocking action on climate all receiving funding from the coal industry,” said Nick Surgey, director of research for the Center for Media and Democracy.
“We expected to see some denial money, but it looks like Peabody is the treasury for a very substantial part of the climate denial movement.”
