Solar Maximum at 100 Year Lows

Temperature doesn't change along with solar output because the climate system is very complex. That said, I'm betting that the Sun's weak activity foretells a longer period of low output that will eventually effect the temperature.

Sun's Current Solar Activity Cycle Is Weakest in a Century

Our star is now at "solar maximum," the peak phase of its 11-year activity cycle. But this solar max is weak, and the overall current cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, conjures up comparisons to the famously feeble Solar Cycle 14 in the early 1900s, researchers said.

"None of us alive have ever seen such a weak cycle. So we will learn something," Leif Svalgaard of Stanford University told reporters here today (Dec. 11) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

I'm not a scientist, but when choosing between which climate arguments make the most sense, I lean towards the guys who place greater importance on the thermonuclear fireball in the sky.

Russian Scientists say period of global cooling ahead due to changes in the sun

According to scientists from the Pulkovo Observatory in St.Petersburg, solar activity is waning, so the average yearly temperature will begin to decline as well. Scientists from Britain and the US chime in saying that forecasts for global cooling are far from groundless. Some experts warn that a change in the climate may affect the ambitious projects for the exploration of the Arctic that have been launched by many countries.

....“Journalists say the entire process is very simple: once solar activity declines, the temperature drops. But besides solar activity, the climate is influenced by other factors, including the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the ocean, the glaciers. The share of solar activity in climate change is only 20%. This means that sun’s activity could trigger certain changes whereas the actual climate changing process takes place on the Earth”.

Solar activity follows different cycles, including an 11-year cycle, a 90-year cycle and a 200-year cycle. Yuri Nagovitsyn comments.

“Evidently, solar activity is on the decrease. The 11-year cycle doesn’t bring about considerable climate change – only 1-2%. The impact of the 200-year cycle is greater – up to 50%. In this respect, we could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years. The period of low solar activity could start in 2030-2040 but it won’t be as pervasive as in the late 17th century”.

The most important statement in that snip is the one about journalists. Thanks to the Internet we have the ability to read original source material, blogs written by experts in their field, amateurs with extensive knowledge but no academic pedigree, which allows us to go beyond the simplistic reporting by journalists. Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) remains the popular theory among climate scientists (not astrophysicists), journalists, government and the general public, but the evidence for at least a cooling effect from the Sun is very strong.