https://irrationalfear.substack.com/p/blinded-by-the-light
Excerpt:
I’ve spent most of my career in earth science, working alongside thoughtful, rigorous, and principled scientists, people I deeply respect. I don’t believe most are dishonest or driven by ideology. Indeed, much of the foundational science in IPCC’s Working Group I, which addresses climate data, physical mechanisms, and processes, appears careful and credible. But even there, there’s a troubling gap: natural variability is consistently underexplored, overlooked, or simply not taken seriously.
But something happens between the technical findings and the public narrative. By the time it reaches policymakers, media, and the general public, nuance disappears. Uncertainty becomes certainty. Debate becomes denial. And science becomes storytelling.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in how the IPCC treats Total Solar Irradiance (TSI), the literal energy source for Earth’s entire climate system.
Each time I write about this, I get closer to saying what I once refused to believe: maybe this isn’t just sloppy communication or bureaucratic overreach. Maybe it’s scientific fraud.
…
What Is Total Solar Irradiance?
Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is simply the amount of energy from the Sun that reaches the top of Earth’s atmosphere. It powers literally everything we experience: storms, currents, temperature changes. Without solar energy, Earth’s climate ceases to exist
TSI isn’t constant. It varies slightly over time due to changes in solar activity, like the 11-year sunspot cycle, and more slowly over decades and centuries due to shifts in the Sun’s magnetic behavior.
Even small changes in TSI, on the order of 1 to 2 watts per square meter, represent a huge amount of energy when averaged over the Earth’s surface. So it’s worth asking: if TSI has increased since the 19th century, could that be contributing to recent warming?
The IPCC’s answer is a hard no.
…
The IPCC’s relentless simplification, reducing Earth’s immensely complex climate system to one molecule (CO₂), isn’t just bad science… it’s dangerous. True scientific integrity demands we honestly consider all climate drivers, especially the Sun, the fundamental energy source powering our entire system.
If we refuse to acknowledge evidence, we’re no longer engaged in science, we’re participating in scientific fraud.
