"The warming is natural, the sun and cosmic rays are heating the earth."
Part of the Common Arguments from Global Warming Skeptics Series
From Logical Science

        Many climate change skeptics claim that the sun is causing the increase in global temperature trends.  These arguments have been made during NPR's 'Global Warming is Not a Crisis' debate by Professor Philip Stott, New Scientist's Niger Calder, The Great Global Warming Swindle documentary, and more.  So the question remains.  Is the warming shown in this graph:

Source: NASA




.....caused by the sun?  Well lets do a side by side comparison of the sun and the temperature.




The Solar Record: 1978 -2006 Temperature Trend: 1975-2006
Source: Physikalisch-Meteoroligisches Observatorium Davos (Solar Constant) Source: NASA (RAW DATA)

Above is the solar record from 1978 to 2006 and the temperature record from 1975 to 2006.  As you can see there is no trend in the overall solar intensity.  Unlike the temperature record which is climbing, the solar record is simply going up and down by +/- 1 watt per meter squared which is the like saying the intensity of the sun changes by +/- 0.07%.  The Temperature on the other hand is clearly rising.  The Max Plank Institute confirms that the suns intensity hasn't changed since 1940.  Tom Wiggly, a scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research who studies solar activity, made the official announcement that “Our results imply that, over the past century, climate change due to human influences must far outweigh the effects of changes in the Sun's brightness.1

The Cosmic Rays
From 100% to < 2% of the warming

The following graph shows the cosmic ray variation from 1953-2007.
Source: Climax Neutron Monitor



Cosmic rays have a much higher variance than the sun.  Yet again the overall trend does not line up with what we see from NASA's temperature record (below).  Both graphs cover similar time frames.

Temperature Trend: 1950-2006
source: NASA (RAW DATA)

And just to finish it off here is a scientific paper discussing the nitty gritty details and claims that "less than 2% of the warming over the last 35 years is due to" cosmic rays.  

The Sun Spots

Coming Soon!

Until then please look at this graph:






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Notes:
To the cosmic ray graph go here and select 1953-2007, 12 hour resolution and "corrected for pressure". The original data is stored at the University of New Hampshire's Astrophysics Lab.  Side by side temperature graphs were created via Microsoft Excel using the 5-year temperature mean data provided by NASA.

Other Sources:
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