Recently in Climate Change Category

I also found this great clip that brings us all up to date on where the current thinking on the effect of the Sun is:

A new scientific study concludes that changes in the Sun's output cannot be causing climate change

The clip is short (here's a longer treatment, No Sun link' to climate change), but it states that for years a small minority of scientist have blamed global warming on increased solar activity and comic rays rather than on CO2 emissions, but new finding appear to prove conclusively that the sun is NOT to blame.

This is pretty convincing stuff -- it's convinced the Liberal Values blog (e.g., The BBC has . . . further debunking of the claim that global warming is caused by the sun as opposed to human activities) and it's convinced Wired Science's Fraser Cain (e.g., There is no connection between global warming and cosmic rays. That's because there's no trend in cosmic rays. It's completely bogus).

If you just read the blogs and BBC News, then you'll think you've got it all straight, and that you can comfortably come to the conclusion that "WE KNOW" there is no meaningful connection between global warming and the sun.

However, I just heard this the other day: Cosmic rays may have a substantial influence on Earth's climate.