Line of the Week

Phil Plait, writer of the Bad Astronomy blog, is one of the greats of the skeptical blogosphere.  But I must confess, I don't tend to read him on a regular basis; nothing against him, it's just a personal choice based on limited time.  So I wasn't aware of just how awesome he is at dealing with the climate change denialist industry.  Earlier this month, there was this wonderful piece dealing with an article from the Mail on Sunday (which I noted because parts of the original article was read to me by relatives I was visiting at the time).

Then this week we've had this summary piece, and finally the article that prompted this post: a rebuttal to an article in the Daily Telegraph.  Which brings the following: (initial quote is from the Telegraph article)

This is why the latest Assessment Report is proving such a headache to the IPCC. It’s the first in its history to admit what its critics have said for years: global warming did “pause” unexpectedly in 1998 and shows no sign of resuming. And, other than an ad hoc new theory about the missing heat having been absorbed by the deep ocean, it cannot come up with a convincing explanation why. 

 Well, actually, no. That’s like seeing a corpse with a bullet wound to the head and saying “Except for the bullet wound to the head you cannot come up with a convincing explanation why this person is dead.”

I applaud you, sir.