05/08/07
A falsification of anthropogenic global warming? -
Categories: Weather and Climate -
twv
@ 03:25:32 pm
As information about global climate shift increases, the number of scientists who deny a recent warming trend has decreased. But the theory that global warming is of anthropogenic cause — that is, man-made — is distinct.
Trouble is, how would one falsify that explanation?
Here's a possibility: discover that global warming is occuring on another of our solar system's planets:
Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.
In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.
Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.
"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.
There could be other explanations (Martian wobble), but the scientist who promoted the data set and the explanation of increased solar radiation remains adamant, and offers a prediction:
Abdussamatov remains contrarian, however, suggesting that the sun holds something quite different in store.
"The solar irradiance began to drop in the 1990s, and a minimum will be reached by approximately 2040," Abdussamatov said. "It will cause a steep cooling of the climate on Earth in 15 to 20 years."
Now, there's something to test.
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