Another One Bites The Dust

There are people who make billions of dollars producing and selling fossil fuels.

Burning any fuel produces carbon dioxide.  There is no doubt in the collective scientific mind that the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the increase in the average atmospheric temperature are connected.

NOT responsible for climate change in the last 1,000 years.

There probably isn't any doubt in most of those billionaires either, but they aren't going to let that stop them from selling their product.

As the tobacco industry learned decades ago, if you don't have the science on your side, sell doubt.  After all, Americans are ignorant, and they want their cigarettes and gasoline and coal-fired electrical plants.  And they love conspiracy stories.

One of the stories sold by the fuel companies is that it is solar activity that is responsible for climate change.  The Sun does go through cycles where it is sometimes brighter than at other times.

There are problems with this.  Among them is the fact that other planets should also show increases and decreases in temperature as the Sun fluctuates, and they don't.

Now a new study of past climates and solar activity has shown that there is NO connection between them.  It does find that

"Until the year 1800, the key driver of periodic changes in climate was volcanic eruptions. These tend to prevent sunlight reaching Earth, causing cool, drier weather. Since 1900, greenhouse gases have been the primary cause of climate change."

A summary of the study is available at Science News.