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People gather at Sombrilla beach to watch the sunset, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP) People gather at Sombrilla beach to watch the sunset, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP)

People gather at Sombrilla beach to watch the sunset, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP)

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu April 3, 2024

No, the Earth-sun distance isn’t causing global warming. Human activity is

If Your Time is short

  • The sun-Earth distance does not factor in the modern trend of global warming.

  • Carbon dioxide and methane emissions, caused by human activity, are the driving force behind global warming

  • No spin, just facts you can trust. Here's how we do it.

The sun surely warms the Earth. But a widely shared social media post says the sun — not human-caused climate change — is why scientists are detecting changing global temperatures.

"Finally the truth! ... Climate change is cyclical and it’s because of our Sun," the March 19 Facebook post claims. Not because of us," said the post, which  includes a screenshot of a March 19 X post from Robin Monoti, an Italian architect and film producer who vocally opposed lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The idea that CO2 causes climate change is another laughable myth," Monoti said. "The Sun is not static, the real reason of changing temperature is that the Sun-Earth distance varies due to what is known as solar-inertial motion." He called global warming a "historical con by the oligarchic class" to increase taxes.

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The distance between Earth and the sun can affect the Earth’s long-term climate. However, climate scientists agree that the sun does not significantly shift the planet’s modern trend toward ever-warming temperatures.

"The warming we have seen over the last few decades is too rapid to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit, and too large to be caused by solar activity," according to NASA. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which includes scientists from 195 countries, said "it is unequivocal that humans are causing the warming. Changes in the sun's activity and volcanic eruptions are not the cause of the warming trend."

"Global warming" and "climate change" are sometimes used interchangeably, but global warming is a "symptom" of climate change. There is international consensus among climate scientists that human activity is leading to increased carbon emissions and carbon traps heat and warms the planet. Carbon dioxide emissions come from a range of industries, including energy, through power plants; agriculture; and transportation. 

Carbon dioxide emissions, methane and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and worsen global warming.

"Methane is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Over the last two centuries, methane concentrations in the atmosphere have more than doubled, largely due to human-related activities."

Methane is responsible for about 30% of global warming according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Agriculture is the main, but not the only, source of methane emissions.

These emissions have an everyday impact: the World Meteorological Organization said 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded.

The idea of the Earth-sun distance causing global warming is not new and has gained recent prominence. 

In 2020, the journal Scientific Reports retracted a 2019 paper that it published that gave credence to the Earth-sun distance idea. Withdrawing the study, the editors said "post-publication peer review has shown that this assumption is inaccurate. … As a result the Editors no longer have confidence in the conclusions presented." The retraction notice said one of the original study’s four co-authors backed the decision to withdraw it.

We rate the claim that the Earth-sun distance is the cause of global warming False.

Our Sources

Facebook post, (archived link), Mar. 19, 2024

Retracted: Paper claiming climate change caused by distance from Sun, Mar. 9 2020

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Our Sun: Facts, accessed Apr. 1, 2024

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change In Data, accessed Apr. 1, 2024

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Causes of Climate Change, accessed Apr. 1, 2024

United Nations, WMO confirms 2023 as warmest year on record ‘by a huge margin’, Jan. 12, 2024

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Couldn't the Sun be the cause of global warming?, Oct. 29, 2020

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Is the Sun causing global warming?, Apr. 1, 2024

Phys.org, Retracted: Paper claiming climate change caused by distance from Sun, Mar. 9, 2020

Nature, Retraction Note: Oscillations of the baseline of solar magnetic field and solar irradiance on a millennial timescale, Mar. 4, 2020

United Nations Environment Programme, Methane emissions are driving climate change. Here’s how to reduce them, Aug. 20, 2021

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Importance of Methane, accessed Apr. 2, 2024

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, accessed Apr. 2, 2024

The Associated Press, Climate Questions: How does carbon dioxide trap heat?, Nov. 6, 2022

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, What's the difference between global warming and climate change?, Jun. 17, 2015

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Why Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles Can’t Explain Earth’s Current Warming, Feb. 27, 2020

The Telegraph, Robin Monotti, the anti-lockdown architect who helped Eric Clapton find his voice, Jul. 28, 2021

X post, (archived link), Mar. 19, 2024

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More by Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu

No, the Earth-sun distance isn’t causing global warming. Human activity is

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