'Sun too causes global warming'

Thu, Apr 3 12:45 AM

FRESH RESEARCH by Danish Space Research Centre can possibly give a new twist to the controversy whether Green House Gas emissions is the major contributor for global warming. The Center's research based on climate date of 150 years shows that varying activity of the Sun is the most systematic contributor to natural climate variations.

The green house emissions is just one of the many factors for global warming, the space centre said. The research shows that solar activity has been has been exceptionally high in the 20th century compared to the last 400 years and possibly compared to the past 8,000 years.

When solar activity is high, the flux of galactic cosmic rays is reduced due to increased magnetic shielding by the Sun. The cosmic rays may influence Earths climate through formation of low-lying clouds causing more warmth on the surface of the earth.

The space centre had found that cosmic rays ionize the atmosphere. Production of aerosols in a sample atmosphere with condensable gases (such as sulphuric acid and water vapour) depends on the amount of ionization.

Since aerosols works as precursors for formation of cloud droplets. Thereby, lower ionization leads to lesser cloud formation and more global warming, the research said.

Even though a physical mechanism connecting cosmic rays to aerosol formation has been found experimentally, no climate model has yet made an attempt to include such an effect, the research said. Deepak Lal, a former Indian Foreign Service officer, said by 2010 the center would prove that Sun is the biggest contributor in global warming and not the green house emissions as being claimed by Intergovernmental Panel on climate change.

He also came down heavily on British economist Sir Nicolas Stern for his report on economic impact of climate change terming it as a scientific junk. "Only use of fossil fuels can help countries to grow like the western world where the economy has grown because of extensive use of fossil fuels," he said.

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