Link: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high.

A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years.
Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star’s activity in the past.

They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth’s climate became steadily warmer.

This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they argue.

The article goes onto to discuss the correlation between the extreme sunspot “low” during the mini “ice age” in the 1600’s and the way that global temperatures have risen as sunspot activity has increased from that moment. Of course, even if climate change is being primarily driven by extra-terrestial influences, humanity should do as little as possible to exacerbate the problem.