Environmental Graffiti

A study released yesterday has once and for all lain to rest the argument that recent rises in global temperature have been caused by increased solar activity. The new analysis, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society by Professor Michael Lockwood shows that over the last twenty five years solar activity has decreased whilst climate change has accelerated.

The solar activity hypothesis has been the central argument of climate change sceptics, who see temperature rises as part of a ‘natural’ climate change cycle. It featured prominently in the now discredited Channel 4 Documentary ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ which has been accused of distorting data and misrepresenting academics. It is also regularly used as an argument on media outlets hostile to environmentalism, such as Fox News.

Solar activity can affect global temperatures and it is thought that it is likely to have done so in the past. The sun’s magnetic field helps clouds to form, which then protect the earth from solar rays. However, this study definitively proves that this is not what has occurred in recent years. The ten hottest years since records began fell within the last twelve years, a period in which solar activity dropped off. Professor Lockwood called the analysis ‘another nail’ in the coffin of climate change scepticism.