In a way its not surprising, the sun affects us all when its sends down its heat. But we now know it affects us indirectly through, clouds. Clouds have a powerful cooling affect, but how are they formed? in the early twentieth century scientists discovered that the earth was constantly being bombarded by sub atomic particles, these particles they believed originated from exploding supernova. when the particles coming down meet water vapor rising up from the sea. They form water droplets and make clouds, but when the sun is more active and the solar wind is strong, fewer particles get through and fewer clouds are formed.
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That is not a new idea but is it supported by hard data? I never heard of any study that showed more clouds form in the air when more cosmic rays hit Earth. I know that cosmic rays form clouds in a Wilson cloud chamber but do we know that they can do the same in the open air? And there are a lot more causes for cloud formation than cosmic rays. So it is not proved in any way.
But it is a well proved fact that added CO2 in the air causes more heat to be trapped on Earth. They can even calculate the expected temperature rise. It turns out that the expected temperature rise is very small and climate scientists are predicting a larger effect from secondary causes, like more water vapor or less snow cover caused by the small temperature change of the CO2, and those effects cause their own added temperature rise. So the devil is in the details, as the saying goes. If you don't like giving up your car or don't like paying a carbon tax then you pick on small details that show little or no magnifying effect. If you just think we shouldn't be fooling with the air and we just need to stop adding all those trillions of tons of CO2 to the air just because it is changing the balance of nature, then you are going to pick on the details that magnify the effect the most to scare people into paying a carbon tax or giving up a car. So it becomes political. Politics ALWAYS ruins good science.
But it is a well proved fact that added CO2 in the air causes more heat to be trapped on Earth. They can even calculate the expected temperature rise. It turns out that the expected temperature rise is very small and climate scientists are predicting a larger effect from secondary causes, like more water vapor or less snow cover caused by the small temperature change of the CO2, and those effects cause their own added temperature rise. So the devil is in the details, as the saying goes. If you don't like giving up your car or don't like paying a carbon tax then you pick on small details that show little or no magnifying effect. If you just think we shouldn't be fooling with the air and we just need to stop adding all those trillions of tons of CO2 to the air just because it is changing the balance of nature, then you are going to pick on the details that magnify the effect the most to scare people into paying a carbon tax or giving up a car. So it becomes political. Politics ALWAYS ruins good science.