The IPCC and other warmist promoters have dismissed the role of the sun as negligible based on calculations of total solar irradiance (TSI).  The claim is that the increase in TSI during the latter part of the 20th century (coinciding with the Grand Solar Maximum, a period of very active sunspots and magnetic effects) could only drive a small amount of the measured warming of the Earth. Since current theory offers no alternative explanation, carbon dioxide emissions are blamed as the culprit. 

But our understanding of the sun is growing by leaps and bounds, and we are learning many things about solar activity that we never knew before. Experiments at CERN have shown that a dearth of solar wind, those charged particles emitted from the sun, allows cosmic rays to reach the Earth and drives the formation of clouds which act to reflect more sunlight back into space. We now know that the sun's magnetic field is far more intimately involved with the Earth's than anyone had thought.

And now we know that solar flare aftershocks occur -- and those aftershocks are accompanied by high levels of Ultraviolet radiation.

According to this release from NASA:

"NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched in February 2010, made the finding:  About 1 in 7 flares experience an "aftershock."  About ninety minutes after the flare dies down, it springs to life again, producing an extra surge of extreme ultraviolet radiation. 

"We call it the 'late phase flare,'" says Woods.   "The energy in the late phase can exceed the energy of the primary flare by as much as a factor of four."

What causes the late phase? Solar flares happen when the magnetic fields of sunspots erupt-a process called "magnetic reconnection."  The late phase is thought to result when some of the sunspot's magnetic loops re-form.  A diagram prepared by team member Rachel Hock of the University of Colorado shows how it works. 

The extra energy from the late phase can have a big effect on Earth.  Extreme ultraviolet wavelengths are particularly good at heating and ionizing Earth's upper atmosphere.  When our planet's atmosphere is heated by extreme UV radiation, it puffs up, accelerating the decay of low-orbiting satellites.  Furthermore, the ionizing action of extreme UV can bend radio signals and disrupt the normal operation of GPS."

Get that!  Here is a whole new mechanism heating the Earth's atmosphere, one that was completely unknown when the IPCC made it's infamous 2007 report declaring case closed on Anthropogenic Global Warming. And ultraviolet isn't stopped at the top of the Earth's atmosphere, at least not completely. How much of this contributes to the theory formerly known as Global Warming?

How much can we subdivide the 1 degree of warming before we have to admit that CO2's influence is statistically insignificant? Bear in mind, the sunspot activity has dropped off during the current decade, and global warming has stalled.

Yet governments continue to treat this as a doomsday crisis. In Australia a bill before Parliament contains carbon credit legislation, and treats the credits as private property so the Australian government would have to pay compensation should future governments attempt to rescind the legislation.

Interesting; waste is now being treated as private property. Perhaps the government can charge homeowners for using their septic tanks, and pay them if they convert to a sewer system? It amounts to roughly the same thing. Waste has never been considered private property.

This illustrates the absolute political nature of this "crisis" as new science overtakes the theory. Governments, media, and environmental groups continue to beat the drum for a fundamental restructuring of society, a restructuring that is not needed because there is no crisis. But too much has been invested in this already, and too much is to be gained by statists to give it up. Increasingly, Global Warming resembles eugenics - a half-cocked theory hell bent on transforming the political and social landscape.

We know how eugenics turned out; a pseudo-science that ended in Hitler's ovens and a world war. Ideas - even ridiculous half baked ones - have consequences.

(Hat tip to Ron De Haan)

Timothy Birdnow is a St. Louis based writer. He blogs at www.tbirdnow.mee.nu