Can We Trust the Sun?

There's an interesting article by David Archibald in the Watt's Up With That blog that looks at the current sunspot cycle and the ones leading up to the Dalton Minimum:

Solar Cycle 24 was a late starter, about three and a half years later than the average of the strong cycles in the late 20th century and almost three year later than the weak cycles of the late 19th century. It was almost as late as Solar Cycle 5, the first half of the Dalton Minimum. The last few months have seen it ramp up relatively rapidly.

Go read the article. It is predicting a "global cooling".

What I get out of this is not a certainty, but a reminder that climate is complex and one factor that the "global warming" crowd hasn't considered is the effect of the sun. Can we really trust the sun to be as warm as it has been for a hundred years? My bet is that we can't.

The global warming crowd should be in the street celebrating because this means we get a reprieve in which to moderate greenhouse gases. (Personally I think we will be moderating them over the next 30 years as we shift to cleaner energy sources.) But I doubt the die hard global warming fanatics will be celebrating. They will be angry and frustrated because their dire warnings will be forgotten. They care more about winning an intellectual argument than the fate of mankind. At least that is my bet.