© NOAANorth American temperatures on December 10, 2016
"It seems something can not be hidden longer..." says Italian geologist Dr Mirco Poletto.
"On 'Il meteo', an Italian weather forecast website, they continue talking about solar minimum and cooling," says Dr Poletto. "The funny thing: they say the sun is "unusually" weak, showing no knowledge about long term solar cycles. Going on in the article, however, they mention Maunder minimum, the little ice age, and other cold periods."
..............
Here's my (Robert's) attempt to paraphrase the Italian website:
The Sun appears unusually tired, because sunspots on its surface are not visible and seems destined to remain rather low for the next days. This continues a trend since the beginning of 2018, because
there have already been 108 days this year without stains (without sunspots). That makes us reflect, because all of
2017 had only 110 "spotless" days ( without stains ).
Should we be concerned? Well, scholars say
there is a close correlation between solar activity and our climate, and an "off" sun could have quite negative repercussions. This is not a fantasy, as it has happened in the past.
Comment: We're already seeing crop failures due to climate disruption, and if we do see a repeat of previous "little ice ages", then the planet is sorely prepared: