How justified are we in thinking that raised levels of CO2 in the atmosphere cause climate change? Here’s a thought-provoking piece reporting an experiment whose results suggest that variations in the bombardment of cosmic radiation could be responsible for changes in cloudiness and thus in atmospheric temperatures:

A team at the Danish National Space Center has discovered how cosmic rays from exploding stars can help to make clouds in the atmosphere. The results support the theory that cosmic rays influence Earth?s climate.

An essential role for remote stars in everyday weather on Earth has been revealed by an experiment at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen. It is already well-established that when cosmic rays, which are high-speed atomic particles originating in exploded stars far away in the Milky Way, penetrate Earth?s atmosphere they produce substantial amounts of ions and release free electrons. Now, results from the Danish experiment show that the released electrons significantly promote the formation of building blocks for cloud condensation nuclei on which water vapour condenses to make clouds. Hence, a causal mechanism by which cosmic rays can facilitate the production of clouds in Earth?s atmosphere has been experimentally identified for the first time.

As Professor Stott comments:

The experiment ties in beautifully with the brilliant work of geochemist, Professor J?n Veizer of the Ruhr University at Bochum, Germany, and the University of Ottawa in Canada, and Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist at the Racah Institute of Physics in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who for some time have been implicating cosmic rays and water vapour, rather than carbon dioxide, as the main drivers of climate change. Indeed, they have put down 75% of climate change to these drivers.

Cosmic rays are known to boost cloud formation - and, in turn, reduce temperatures on Earth - by creating ions that cause water droplets to condense. J?n Veizer and Nir Shaviv calculated temperature changes at the Earth’s surface by studying oxygen isotopes trapped in rocks formed by ancient marine fossils. They then compared these with variations in cosmic-ray activity, determined by looking at how cosmic rays have affected iron isotopes in meteorites.

Their results suggest that temperature fluctuations over the past 550 million years are more likely to relate to cosmic-ray activity than to CO2. By contrast, they found no correlation between temperature variation and the changing patterns of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Watch this space, as Professor Stott says.

Technorati Tags: CO2, atmosphere, climate change, cosmic rays, clouds, Earth

I was very happy to meet Marco Oliveira and his wife at our National Baha’i Centre in London last Wednesday (4th October). It’s always a pleasure to meet a fellow Baha’i, but particularly so in Marco’s case, since he is a fellow blogger and we have corresponded by email blog comments for some time.

Marco was kind enough to give me a copy of a wonderful book with substantial chapters on each of the six major religions in Portugal, including the Baha’i Faith. Representatives of each of the faiths concerned wrote the chapters on their own faith, thus ensuring accuracy of information. The book, which is sponsored by the Portuguese government, is a beautifully produced hardcover volume, very dignified.

What a wonderful initiative by the Portuguese government - I don’t know of anything similar sponsored by any other government in the world. Of course, you may know differently…

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, blogger, Portugal