After studying at the last 11,000 years of solar activity, astrophysicist Mark Clilverd says the sun’s contribution to climate change on Earth will reduce slightly over the next 100 years. For the past century, we’ve had large numbers of solar flares, sunspots and geomagnetic storms, all of which increase global warming.
The sun’s contribution to the increase in Earth temperatures is estimated to be between 4 and 20%, with greenhouse gases making up the remaining 80%. Clilverd thinks the number of space storms will decline by two thirds. He says, “This work is speculative and relies on the idea that the sun shows regular cycles of activity on time scales of 10 to 10,000 years and that its heat output and activity are related.”
Clilverd says that although solar activity may reduce in 2100, it will return to its current levels by 2200. He says, “This research is important for understanding the severity and impact of climate change in coming centuries?Emissions of greenhouse gases are highly likely to cause warming of the Earth, but factors such as solar variability could amplify or subdue the effect.”
So we’ll get a small respite?but will we take advantage of it, so we can be prepared the next time the Earth heats up?
You can plan ahead, but you can’t anticipate everything.
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