The Intensity of the Sun

A friend of mine pointed out to me the possiblity that Gary Goodyear, our of state for science and technology, may have been trying to talk about global warming when he mentioned the Intensity of The Sun. For your consideration:

• Sun to Blame for Global Warming

  Those looking for the culprit responsible for global warming have missed the obvious choice - the sun. ... It wasn't until 1980, with the aid of NASA satellites, that scientists definitively proved that the sun's brightness - or radiance - varies in intensity, and that these variations occur in predictable cyclical patterns. ... The correlation between major changes in the Earth's temperature and changes in solar radiance is quite compelling.

• The Inconvenient Truth:The Sun Varies in Intensity

  For the last twenty days there have been no sunspots (January 1 to 20 2008). Ultraviolet radiation has dropped to extremely low ratings and coronal holes have opened sending high levels of solar winds and making the aurora borealis larger. Siberia is suffering a cold snap and in a few weeks Canada may become colder than it has been in decades. Global Warming?

It looks like this Intensity of The Sun business is a favourite go-to line for the deniers of man-made climate change. Now is Gary Goodyear doing some Dog-whistle politics here? If so, he didn't do a very good job of it, mainly because he is so friggin inarticulate. His original response to a question about evolution was to say that he didn't want to answer any questions related to his religion. Kind of a non sequitur there. Then later, with the assumed goal of clarifying his earlier remarks, he talked about the intensity of the sun, concrete sidewalks, and high-heel shoes.

The problem with the Intensity of The Sun is that real scientists agree that the sun is not causing global warming.