Is There Evidence That the Solar System is Heating Up?

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While the impact of human activity upon Earth’s environment is well documented and proven, whether or not mankind’s activity is the only agent causing a rise in temperatures and climate change does have room for debate, as other parts of our solar system are warming and experiencing climate alterations, too.

solar-system

Changes on other planets can be observed

According to a report published on Live Science back in 2007, in addition to Earth, Mars Pluto and other worlds of our solar system were also heating up.

Some of the things that we are observing here on Earth are happening on other planets in the solar system, a fact well documented by the numerous space probes launched within the last decades. Astronomers, as well, have observed important changes, including super storm activities, strong winds and melting ice, according a report by to the Resonance Science Foundation.

Solar activity

Numerous publications have stressed that the sun itself is not heating up, and that in fact, solar irradiance has leveled off or has actually been declining.

However, that is just one factor regarding solar activity.

The sun’s magnetic field drives a variety of solar activity such as solar flares, coronal mass injections, high-speed solar wind and solar energetic particles.

The solar-climate change link

Evidence of climate changes are also visible on all planets of the solar system. Like the changes on Earth, they have all happened within a recent and very short period of time.

As one of its strongest pieces of evidence for climate change on Earth, NASA points to the amount of carbon dioxide remaining below 300 parts per million throughout history up until about 1950, and then, in just over the last 50 years, it has spiked up to its current level of 400 parts per million. But that is just a single piece in a complicated puzzle.

Temperature increases & sunspots

When one looks at the time period of certain temperature changes, they seem to closely correlate with solar activity – and sunspots in particular.

What’s interesting is that in light of a maximum observation that occurred in 2014, astrophysicists are now predicting a decrease in sunspot activity, anticipating a drop of approximately 60% in intensity during the 2030s, where such activity would correlate to “mini ice age” levels. If that prediction is true, this would be a stark contradiction to the predicted global warming event that continues to make fatalistic daily news headlines.

Summary

While the increase in greenhouse gases and environmental pollution are by no means something that should be written off or ignored, again, they are just one piece of an intricate puzzle that encompass one of several other factors affecting climate change, one of many factors that scientists must wrestle with in trying to predict weather and the future of Earth’s climate.