Another theory of global warming....

Not CO2, not the Sun, but the tug and pull of the planets and the sun...

Willie Soon, a climate scientist based in Massachusetts, agrees that natural forces are largely responsible for driving climate change on Earth, but he has some reservations about the cosmic ray theory. Instead, he sees a mix of astronomical influences that include the sun and other heavenly bodies.

“It’s a beautiful idea and I’m open-minded about it, but in the end I don’t think cosmic rays are the ultimate answer,” he said. “For me what works is to look at the powerful phenomenon attached to how the earth goes around the sun. Very slight changes [in the orbit] can lead to changes in the seasons.”

Soon credits a mathematician named Milutin Milankovic from Yugoslavia (now Serbia) who formulated the “orbital theory of climate change” back during the World War II era for offering up an explanation that remains salient and relevant to this day.

“So the way this theory works, we do not look at the energy of the sun itself,” Soon said. “Instead we look at the way our earth is being pulled and tugged by bigger planets, including the sun and the most massive gas giants. This is how our orbit is changing. Seasons can be changed slightly and yet significantly by orbits being pulled and tucked.”

From this larger astronomical perspective it also is possible to measure warming and cooling cycles that impact Earth’s nearby neighbors, most notably Mars, Soon suggested.

There is data going all the way back to 1976 that show Mars has also experienced global warming. The Martian ice cap has been melting during the same time period that human-caused emissions have been identified as the culprit behind global warming on Earth, he said.

Soon acknowledges that the astronomical data is limited and that more research is required. Even so, for the moment, it is difficult to disprove the idea that heavenly influences are largely responsible for the warming trends over the past few decades, he added.