denier

A favorite claim of the climate change deniers is to point out that in Medieval times, the Vikings built farms in Greenland and Europe was in a warm spell. That, they claim, is evidence that modern global warming is just natural climate variation.

In the latest issue of the journal Science, scientists put that claim to rest.

Using natural records going back about 1,000 years, the scientists were able to pinpoint causes of Europe's Medieval warm spell, and they can show that the mechanisms responsible for warmer temperatures in Europe then are not causing the warming seen today.

At SolveClimate, we've answered the question posed in the headline with a resounding "no!" Unfortunately, the New York Times and The Guardian – to name two prominent outlets – think otherwise. Read their stories about the three-day International Conference on Climate Change, organized by the Heartland Institute, and you are left with a big so-what.

The stories serve primarily to legitimize the attempts of climate change deniers to undermine the integrity of science through political means, with prominent media coverage being their most potent weapon.

Once again, Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog and Kert Davies of Greenpeace are on site, doing yeoman's work to make sure the media stories are "balanced."

Grandia produced an indispensable guide called "How to Manufacture Public Doubt - analysis of the public relations techniques used by the climate denial industry."

Davies was letting the media know that the so-called experts giving presentations at the conference were “a shrinking collection of extremists” and that they were “left talking to themselves.”

General Motor’s chief climate denier (he prefers skeptic) is finally on his way out the door.

GM just announced that it is retiring Bob Lutz as vice chairman for global product development. He’ll be replaced on April 1 and fully retired at the end of the year – if GM lasts that long.

We hope Lutz is the last of that model to emerge from Detroit. Last year, we called for his resignation as a condition of the Big Three bailout.