One of the perennial favourites of climate change deniers such as Brian Leyland and Richard Worth is that climate change (which they deny is happening) is caused by cosmic rays, which since we can't do anything about them, conveniently lets the fossil fuel industry off the hook.
Sadly (for them), this turns out not to be the case. A study published in Environmental Research Letters has found only a very weak correlation between cosmic ray activity and cloud formation (the proposed intermediate mechanism) in one sunspot cycle - and none at all in the next. The upshot?
"We tried to corroborate Svensmark's hypothesis, but we could not; as far as we can see, he has no reason to challenge the IPCC - the IPCC has got it right.But no doubt we'll see the same old fools peddling the same old discredited "facts" in the opinion pages of the herald in the near future."So we had better carry on trying to cut carbon emissions."
