It’s worth tracking discussions on Weds. Dec 6th, when Senator James Inhofe, the outgoing chairman of the Environment and Public Works committee, holds a hearing examining media coverage of global warming.

Sen. Inhofe has claimed that catastrophic human-caused warming is a “hoax,” while many climate experts see human-caused warming as the keystone environmental issue of the century. Inhofe had criticized my new book on global and arctic warming, The north pole Was Here, in a senate floor speech on climate alarmism, while crediting me with questioning some of the overheated coverage this year.

What I’ve been saying is that, amid all the talk of real-time catastrophe or hoax, people should not forget there’s a huge amount of consensus on on the basics: more CO2= warmer world= less ice= higher seas & shifting climate patterns.

In other words, no one disagrees that people have a hand on the planet’s thermostat, and that — to me — is more than enough to focus our attention!

-- Andrew Revkin