SOLAR ACTIVITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE—A SUMMARY

While there is abundant evidence worldwide of synchronous linkages between rainfall, river flow and sunspot activity, the causal linkage was rejected in the IPCC (2001) reports on the grounds that variations in solar radiation are too small to account for climatic variations. This response is unsatisfactory, as it does not explain the wealth of data, dating back for more than 100 years, that demonstrates that a causal linkage does indeed exist.

This is the problem that the two of us were determined to resolve. We believe that we have produced new evidence that will eventually lead to the conclusion that variations in solar activity and not the burning of fossil fuels are the direct cause of the observed multiyear variations in climatic responses. The starting point was the incontestable, statistically significant (95%), 21-year periodicity in the South African rainfall, river flow and other hydrometeorological data.