This post begins a new media watchdog category addressing an environmental enigma: The climate skeptic. Like John Wayne fighting in the “Alamo,” this individual is holding out despite overwhelming odds. The Doobie Brothers “What A Fool Believes?” It fits here pretty well too.

Today’s mark: Conservative columnist George F. Will. Sometimes we enjoy his writing and although this probably won’t go down in the books as a massive journalistic mishap, a Dan Rather-like fall from grace, it’s still hard not feel a sense of schadenfreude, especially after his recent “let them eat cake” punditry.

In the Washington Post, Will argued climate change doesn’t exist, and several of his supportive data points were completely bogus. The Talking Points Memo broke the story in “Where There's a (George) Will There's A Way ... To Deny Global Warming.”

Here's the first:

"According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979."

But within hours of Will's column appearing, the ACRC had posted the following statement on its website:

"We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined."

It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts.

We agree. Until he serves up an explanation, George Will has the distinction of launching DTE’s Dear Science category. Cheers.

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