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The earth could be rescued from global warming by an unlikely saviour: not fewer cars, nor less pollution, nor even thousands of wind farms — but, remarkably, by a cooler Sun.
An international group of scientists believes a period of reduced solar activity could soon bring desperately needed cooling to our sweltering world.
The work is based on research of past periods of climatic change, including the Little Ice Age in the 1700s when Europe shivered, and harvests failed. At the same time, solar activity dropped and sunspots disappeared from the face of the Sun.
Now leading scientists are predicting that we may soon enter such a period again — although they stress such cooling would only bring temporary relief to our overheated world. In the end, the Earth will still be swamped by huge rises in global temperatures, triggered by human activities, that will affect the planet over the next few decades.
“If there was a period of low solar activity, it could give us a little more time to combat global warming and to introduce the curbs on the carbon emissions that we need to limit climate change,” said Professor Joanna Haigh, of Imperial College, London.
The revelation comes in the wake of Nasa’s successful launch of the Solar-B mission, which will study the Sun’s corona. Space scientists are finalising preparations for two other probes to study the star that dominates the world: Stereo, in which one spaceship will fly ahead of, and another behind, the Earth as it orbits the Sun; and Solar Orbiter, which will swoop close to the Sun’s surface to gain a detailed view of its surface.
Scientists have known for decades that the Sun’s output varies over an 11-year cycle. More recently, they have found what appear to be other, longer cycles affecting its output. These occasionally cause perceptible drops in solar radiation.
Studies have shown that when solar output is high, the climate tends to be hot.
Great ball of fire
● The Sun is a sphere of super-hot gas, 870,000 miles in diameter. Its volume is great enough to hold more than one million Earths.
● The surface temperature is 5,500 degrees Centigrade: it is 15 million degrees C at its core.
● The average distance from Earth to Sun is 93 million miles.
● At 4.5 billion years old, the Sun is halfway through its lifespan.
