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“We have to benchmark the natural system (i.e., the Sun) before looking at additions to it (e.g. carbon dioxide),” he explained. “Comparing current data with those of a century ago can give us an idea of the added effect of greenhouse gases. But sticking your head in the sand and saying the Sun has no effect on climate change is a virtual denial of historical reality.”
“I’m not a ‘climate-change sceptic’,” he added. “But although carbon dioxide could be a major contributor to global warming, it’s just one part of a complex system.” That system is so complex, he said, that the short-term temperature trend in the Southern Hemisphere (since 2002) is actually down rather than up.
Dr Baker is keeping a keen eye on daily reports of solar activity. “The Sun isn’t powering up,” he said. “The period of minimum sunspots signalling the completion of Cycle 23, although due to end in October 2007, is continuing. We could, in fact, be entering a prolonged period of minimal sunspot activity such as the one that brought the ‘Federation droughts’ around the turn of the twentieth century and a dip in global temperatures for a decade.”