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Scientists: Cosmic Ray-Cloud Connection Explains Million-Year Climate Changes Far Better Than CO2

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Per a  new study , million-year variations in cosmic rays (CR) modulating cloud cover, which, in turn, drives variations in incident solar radiation on short- and long-term timescales, is the dominant cause of million-year climate variations, explaining all 7 Ice Age epochs over the Phanerozoic. In contrast, declining CO2 and rising solar luminosity over the last billion years cannot explain past climate variations, as they ā€œcancel each other out.ā€ CO2ā€™s effects on climate are, using paleoclimate estimations of solar luminosity, assessed to be nearly just half of what the climate models say they are (2.1 W/mĀ² for CO2 doubling [~0.7Ā°C] rather than 3.7 W/mĀ² [1.2Ā°C] per doubling). Assessing only millions-of-years timescales, the authors ( Shaviv et al., 2023 ) suggest: ā€œThe CR/climate relationship is the only one capable of explaining the magnitude of the observed solar-climate interactions.ā€ ā€œThe apparent effect that the CRs have on cloud cover automatically explains the size of all ...