The signs that astronomy is in recovery would include productive research on the Earth's climate.


People who argue about ‘climate change’ using the current definition are both sides of the same mediocre coin as they are too narrow in their views . Not just the Earth but all planets in the solar system possess a climate so it simply means that climate is defined on common traits that do not involved distance from the Sun or planetary composition.

http://calgary.rasc.ca/images/planet_inclinations.gif



If the Earth had an inclination similar to the 3° of Jupiter there would be little change across all latitudes over the course of a year and much like the conditions at the Equator while if the Earth had the 82° inclination of Uranus there would be huge swings across most latitudes similar to conditions experienced within the Arctic/Antarctic circles .

In short, climate is determined by a spectrum between 0° (Equatorial) and 90° (Polar) so the Earth with its 23 1/2° inclination is within this spectrum as having a largely Equatorial climate with a sizable but minor Polar input. The Earth’s climate would change if inclination increased towards 90° in which case it would become more Polar and a decrease of inclination towards 0° would mean a climate change towards an Equatorial climate.

Trying to squeeze climate into long term weather patterns was always a silly thing to do even if the success of short term weather modelling provided the basis for that lamentable definition.