The article Read the Sunspots, by R. Timothy Patterson, professor and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, for Canada's Financial Post, is a crusher for the warming alarmists. Professor Patterson shares his belief, based on years of research, including the "highest-quality climate records available anywhere today," that the variations in solar activity is driving climate change, and has been doing so for thousands of years.

I think he's right. Based on the articles I've read (many of which I've previously linked to), the sun's role in affecting our climate is greatly underestimated. I am still open to new information and new studies, but I'd be willing to wager that when we finally have a firm handle on climate change, the most complex system science has every grappled with, we'll find that the sun is the dog wagging the our climate tail.

How's this for a wrap-up quote?

Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age, should be a priority for governments. It is global cooling, not warming, that is the major climate threat to the world...