One of the reasons the sun has been neglected in climate studies is because the amplitude of the sunspot cycles has been diminishing since the late 1950’s while global temperature has risen since the late 1970’s. This facile dismissal of the Sun’s importance is stupid, but there it is.
Now Willie Soon has produced a graph which takes into account the changing atmospheric modulation of incoming solar energy. It graphs sunshine hours in Japan against the surface temperature record in China.
This should remove any doubts people had about a link between the Sun and our climates.
Let the arguments over how small changes in TSI and cloud cover can effect large changes in temperature commence. :-)