solar effects have generally been left out of climate models. However, the latest research has changed this view, and the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), due in 2013, will include solar effects in its models...
The sun is being unusually quiet and seems to be napping a long time before starting maximum solar activity, so we do not really understand what the role of the Sun is in the Earth's weather and climate. Some weather patterns like monsoons seem correlated to solar activity.
Science needs to study and rule in or out various solar factors and to improve drastically the climate prediction models. This is a nice first step, trying to follw real data not prejudge it or manipulate it.
And if you hadn't noticed here is a paper saying we have more Arctic Seas ice then any time in the past 900 years.
