This story is at http://phys.org/print296756636.html … research shows solar radiation peaked in the 1930s. This is not surprising as the highest temperatures of the 20th century occurred in that decade. Global temperatures plunged in the 1940s and remained low until the 1970s. All very well known and part of a solar cycle also equally well known. However, the study then claims solar radiation changed little after the 1970s – but there was a rise in temperature. The paper is published in PNAS and after a few paragraphs one gets the impression the idea is to support the CAGW song sheet. The motives for writing the paper are transparent, if not solar radiation then it must be the evil co2 that raised temperature in the 1990s and kept them high during the 2000s. Not a solar cycle – oh no.
Incredibly, a spokesman from an Australian 'Climate Change Research Centre' in New South Wales says, 'we already know from direct observations of the power coming from the Sun that it has contributed nothing to global warming since 1979 though it probably made a small contribution to warming early in the 20th century' (which is basically a denial of the extent of that warmth). He was not involved in the actual research and it is not clear why Phys Org should ask the CAGW lobby for their opinion of a paper that was easy to decypher. Another CAGW alarmist chipped in, otherwise well known for 'cooking' the evidence. He said the Sun had made little contribution to global warming over recent decades, and one wonders how people fall for such comical ideas.