Cosmic Rays and Climate

The current position of bodies like the IPCC and the broader climate alarmist lobby is that climate change in the industrial age is predominantly caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases, with relatively small natural contributions due to solar irradiance and volcanoes.

As explained in the article “A new solar theory of climate” and the video “Svensmark’s new solar theory of climate change” an entirely different theory about climate change has emerged in the last decade. This theory proposes that climate is controlled by changes in the level of incoming cosmic rays which changes the amount of cloud cover on earth. A very important controller of cosmic rays is solar activity.

The talk shown in two parts in the videos below is by Jasper Kirkby a physicist working at CERN. It presents an overview of the palaeoclimatic evidence for solar/cosmic ray forcing of the climate, and reviews the possible physical mechanisms. These will be investigated in the CLOUD experiment which begins at the CERN in 2010. The cloud experiment is a direct follow up to Svensmark’s SKY experiment.

The topic of these lecture is of very immediate importance because we seem to witnessing what appears to be a profound shift in the level of the suns activity at the moment and if there is indeed a correlation between solar activity and climate then we may be about to enter a period of sharply declining global temperatures.

It is interesting to note how cautious Jasper Kirby is in the lecture and how he avoids any overt criticism of the C02 theory which now has such a powerful lobby of supporters outside of the scientific world. Nobody wants to lose their funding - and of course particle physicists don’t like to make waves.

Part one of the lecture by Jasper Kirkby at CERN

Part Two of the lecture by Jasper Kirkby at CERN