During today's Summer Solstice, the Sun will attain its highest point north of the celestial equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, Sol will work its light and warmth wonders on its orbiting child longer than on any other day of the year, while those living south of the equator experience a conversely cooling phenomenon.  What better day to be reminded of the definitive source of all climate flux on the planet?Indeed, scientists have observed the direct connection between solar activity and Earth's climate for centuries.   In the 19th, Edward W Maunder discovered a 70 year period centuries prior in which sunspot activity all but ceased to be.  That period (The Maunder Minimum) coincided with the globe's coldest of the last millennium (The Little Ice Age).  Then, as sunspot activity increased again around 1750, so did average global temperatures.Coincidence, you say?  How's this -- less than 100 orbits of the Sun later, solar activity once again dropped off...(Read Full Post)