Other causes of global warming

Today, a story on Drudge says that this September is the warmest on record. Of course, the leftwingers out there are going to blame CO2 in the atmosphere for the increase in temperature without looking at other possible causes. One such "alternative cause" really got my attention lately. According to the BBC, this year, the sun has been the most active in the past 1000 years.

But the most striking feature... is that looking at the past 1,150 years the Sun has never been as active as it has been during the past 60 years....The flux of cosmic rays reaching the Earth's surface is modulated by the strength of the solar wind, the charged particles that stream away from the Sun's surface.

The interesting connection with sunspots is that over the long term, periods that don't have as many sun-spots have been cooler than in periods that have had increased sunspots. In fact, for 70 years in the 1600's and early 1700's the earth was in a "mini-ice age."

In particular, it has been noted that between about 1645 and 1715, few sunspots
were seen on the Sun's surface. Ice cores record climate trends back beyond human measurementsIt coincided with a spell of prolonged cold weather often referred to as the "Little Ice Age". Solar scientists strongly suspect there is a link between the two events...

In other words, the earth was several degrees cooler during this period. I have no doubt that if our planet was slowely cooling, the media would be blaming big-business and Republicans. I am sure that the Drudge story is going to be picked up by the MSM and it is going to be blown out of proportion. Perhaps they should look at the BIG picture instead of pushing their liberal, anti-business agenda.