The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.
© Mail on SundayA painting, dated 1684, by Abraham Hondius depicts one of many frost fairs on the River Thames during the mini ice age.
Solar output goes through 11-year cycles, with high numbers of sunspots seen at their peak.
We are now at what should be the peak of what scientists call 'Cycle 24' - which is why last week's solar storm resulted in sightings of the aurora borealis further south than usual. But sunspot numbers are running at less than half those seen during cycle peaks in the 20th Century.
Analysis by experts at NASA and the University of Arizona - derived from magnetic-field measurements 120,000 miles beneath the sun's surface - suggest that Cycle 25, whose peak is due in 2022, will be a great deal weaker still.
Comment: What the study fails to mention is the vulnerability of low IQ individuals to the manipulations of pathological individuals in power. Obviously, these people do not come by their beliefs out of thin air. Their conservatism tends to make them gravitate to what is promoted by those in authority and it is to those quarters that we need to look for the pathology of Xenophobia.