The Earth's Changing Climate

Where is the earth's climate headed?  My view is that the single largest input of energy into the earth system is The Sun.  How have we missed including that as part of the discussion?  I think the Sun's energy output is most relevant to the question.

The chart is showing sunspot activity going back to 1700 (click on the chart to see a more readable display).  That's a very significant data set.  The number of sun spots in a given year is directly related to the amount of energy coming from the sun (measured in Watts per square meter) but it's easiest to plot sunspot count. Now, they say that one climate data point gathers the previous 30 years worth of data. So I did that, and that is the top chart.

On the 30-year average chart, each data point is the average number of sun spots over the previous 30 years.  I've added a green and blue band and some recognizable historical events to give a reference. 


Conclusions:

You can see that since 1950, we have been in an ongoing period of the highest amount of energy coming from the sun in history. This has produced a wonderful period of good crops worldwide. You could call it global greening!

You can also see that we are now heading into a period of reduced energy coming from the sun. Don't say 'ice age'.  It is more likely going to be a period with weather patterns like we saw in the 30's. Long harsh winters and reduced crop yields. We are already seeing very long and harsh winter weather conditions in the northern latitudes. Expect that to continue for the next thirty years!  

No, there's nothing you can do to change it. It's The Sun stupid!






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