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Science 8 March 1996:
Vol. 271. no. 5254, pp. 1360 - 1361
DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5254.1360
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Research News

Richard A. Kerr

For decades, most climate researchers dismissed the idea that the subtle waxing and waning of the sun could drive climate change, but now they are having to reconsider. Temperature records from the ocean and glacial ice have revealed 11- and 22-year variations matching sunspot cycles, and a 400-year climate history shows a striking resemblance to inferred changes in the sun. If the correlations are real, the sun could have been responsible for as much as half of the warming of the past century. That would reduce the role of greenhouse gases in the warming--and lower estimates of how much they will warm climate in the future as they continue to build up.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)