The Eddy Minimum
Is just about to begin.
During the
Little Ice Age, lasting most of the 17th century, earth's climate went askew. It had nothing to do with people burning fossil fuel. Up to a third of earth's population perished in drought, flood, famine and war. All over the world, the most populated regions were devastated. This Little Ice Age is called the '
Maunder minimum' today, after Maunder, the scientist who discovered sunspots almost entirely vanished during it. Today, we enter another period of weak sunspot activity, called the
Eddy minimum which may last up to 35 years. Sunspot activity, on the sun's surface, is a proxy for magnetic activity below the surface. The sun orbits the solar-system center-of-gravity once every 22.2 years. It rotates on its axis once ever 24 days. Because it's a big ball of fluid, magnetic systems (below its surface) can align and reinforce, or antagonize; as they move at different speeds. A solar minimum is a long period of antagonistic effects, evidenced by few sunspots.
What exactly is going to happen? I can't say. We don't know for sure what effect these changes will have on the climate, nor how they will be mediated. We do know that a similar, longer, solar minimum devastated the 17th century.
Recommended reading:
Global Crisis by Geoffrey Parker