It is (gasp) snowing in Copenhagen

The intellectual dishonesty of leading global-warming deniers is summed up in this one photograph, now on the Drudge website, accompanied by this headline:

Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming...
More on the way; Temps set to drop even further...

This kind of nonsense follows on the trumpeted excitement of an early-season snow (snow!) in Houston.

If those who hope to prevent real action to slow carbon pollution wish to be taken seriously, they need to avoid pure foolishness.

I’ve had the same arguments with people who choose to disbelieve in evolution, in the vast age of the universe, and in the concept of a round earth (yes, I’ve actually met flat-earthers).

You have to come to the table with real science, not one-line populist zingers.

Anyone who understands even the basics of climate research understands that it doesn’t matter if we see an anomalous snowfall now and then.

It doesn’t matter if we see winter arriving in…wintertime. (Duh.)

What matters is that thousands of scientists cross-referencing and correlating decades of research — and, thanks to ice cores and other techniques, centuries of data — have reached a 95% consensus.

What’s more, this consensus transcends disciplines. Chemists, climatologists, botanists, in a hundred different fields researchers are finding a universality in their data.

The planet is warming. Carbon is to blame. Human production of carbon is the most significant cause of new carbon loading, and the amount of that pollution is escalating dangerously.

None of this means we can’t have an open debate about the consequences and the proper actions to take.

It’s perfectly fair — if not, in my opinion, reasonable — to say we should do nothing. Some economists argue that any significant action would just be too expensive.

But to deny that the problem exists, without wrestling honestly with the science, is intellectually and morally indefensible.

Those of you who respond on the “other side” of this debate, no zingers please. No one-liners.

Try to honestly tackle the fact that 95% of our best scientists — the overwhelming majority honest and independent thinkers — are convinced that a clear and present danger exists.

And if you believe that there exists some sort of massive global conspiracy, try to articulate sensibly what the motives for such an enterprise might be.