A commenter alerted me to this story about the climate denial industry, and their latest effort to cause enough confusion to prevent action to solve the problem.

Of course this is all exhaustingly familiar as it is a near exact replay of the retreating battle against cigarettes-cause-cancer science. And evolution science. Delay, divert, obfuscate, forestall, confuse. If you are wondering how to tell who’s right, well, that’s their goal, and they’ve already won. If you’re wondering how to know if they are burying you in a old-fashioned snow job, here’s how you know:

First: Their story keeps changing. For the first half of the argument, they kept saying, “If the theory were correct: WE’D SEE THE WARMING!” Where’s the warming? Where is it? Ha ha! Where IS IT? They made a big mistake with that line of attack, because the warming, AS PREDICTED, showed up. Then their story conveniently, abruptly changed to: “Well of course there’s warming. Climate changes all the time!” It changes just like their arguments do. Second. You don’t HAVE to do the science yourself! That’s what we have scientists for. And with the always-present exception of a handful of outlying (if not outright lying) cranks, the climate scientists, you know the one’s with training and expertise IN THAT SUBJECT are in essential agreement, and have been for years and years. Unless you are the kind of person who believes in giant conspiracies, and be careful before you admit to that, you don’t have ANY PARTICULAR REASON to think they are wrong. What about those points the skeptics keep bringing up as if they change the conclusion? Believe it or not, climate scientists have HEARD OF THOSE too! What, even studied and factored them in?? Yes! They don’t change the conclusion!

But but but, it’s still a controversy. The deniers last line of defense. Can’t know! Don’t preach certainty! Okay. Now look at the chart they put up, in the photo with the Times’ story: “Climate change: Not man made. Not harmful.” They are plenty ready to preach certainty when they think they can get away with it.