Bob Kearney, retired University of Idaho physics professor, editorializes in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
Understanding climate change isn’t complicated, but it requires some energy bookkeeping.
We get our energy from two sources: the sun, which is monitored carefully and changes little, and the Earth’s interior, which, except for the occasional and relatively short-lived volcanic eruption, also does not change.
His understanding of physics is probably excellent, but his knowledge of astrophysics is solely lacking.
It doesn’t take much research to find that the sun’s output does change. But a little change from a very big thermonuclear fusion reactor in the sky can have significant effects on our climate.
He either has to argue that the strong correlation means nothing, or that the earth’s temperature changes (caused by what: SUV’s in the 1600s?) caused the sunspots to change.
Here’s a challenge to the professor: explain what the cause is for the correlation between sunspots and earth’s temperature.