During recent months, satellite temperature measurements of the lower troposphere have risen from those prevalent in early 1998. The previous 18-year range was about 0.8 ºC. The recent rise by about 0.6 ºC from the approximate mean is to a level about 0.2 ºC warmer than at any previous time during this 18 year record. The 18-year trend line (even after recent improvements for satellite drift and other minor corrections) is still slightly negative - or, within statistical significance, essentially unchanged because the recent rise so far covers a short  ime interval. The global warmers are, of course, ecstatic. Personally, if we had predicted chaos, we would be greatly prefer to be proved wrong - but not these people. Only a frying Earth will make them happy. Actually, since the sharp rises in this record are usually followed by sharp drops of from 0.4 ºC to 0.8 ºC, there is little for them to crow about. It is possible, however, that this recent rise is part of a new warming cycle.

As Figure 1 shows (see Figure 4, Access to Energy 25-3, p 2 for this and related references), the Earth's warming trend of during the past 250 years correlates very closely with solar activity. It does not, as we have shown previously, correlate with human activity.

As reported in "Will 1998 be the warmest year on record?" in eco- logic, May/June 1998, available from P.O. box 191, Hollow Rock, TN 38342, p21, an increase in solar radiation occurred simultaneously with this recent rise in atmospheric temperature. Solar flares of such great intensity that they knocked out Telstar 401 Communications indicated a significant rise in solar activity.

It may be that the sun is entering another upward fluctuation in activity like the four other such fluctuations shown in Figure 1. Science News 152, p 197 (1997), reviewed a paper by Richard C. Willson in the September 26, 1997 issue of Science in which Willson reported that solar radiation had increased by 0.036 percent between 1986 and 1996. The concomitant increase in energy absorbed by the Earth turns out to be, according to Willson, 70 times greater than all energy utilized by human activities during the same time period.

In any case, conclusions about global warming must be based on the entire experimental record - not upon short-term fluctuations. It would be equally ridiculous for global warming opponents to announce, after the next downward fluctuation in temperatures, that this was evidence of global cooling. To the best of the authors' ability, the relevant data is displayed and referenced in the paper "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" by A. B. Robinson, S. L. Baliunas, W. Soon, and Z. W. Robinson, which was distributed by the Petition Project. This paper has been expanded somewhat and submitted for ordinary publication. Also, the original paper has been picked up by several publishers for republication. The most notable is the Medical Sentinel 3, No. 5, September/October 1998. It is also available along with the current list of petition signers (we are now up to about 19,000 signers, which includes 17,000 with degrees in science) at www.oism.org and www.oism.org/pproject.

The hypothesis that human activity is significantly changing the temperature and weather of the Earth is not supported by the experimental data and is, in fact, rejected by it. Moreover, the data show that the Earth has been much warmer during recent millennia, for which there is a substantial human historical record. Those warm periods were not characterized by environmental disruptions from warmer temperatures. Therefore, we need not worry about environmental calamities even if the natural, sun-mediated warming trend continues.

The only warming trend currently affecting the global energy rationing schemes of the Clinton-Gore administration is moral. Both of these protagonists are in so much hot water due to their lack of morals and ethics that they have been unable to promote their enviro agenda.