Climate science - and perhaps the definition of science itself - is in for an update, thanks to the tireless work of tobacco and oil industry apologist [1], Dr. S. Fred Singer [2].

Singer and his current writing buddy, Hudson Institute [3] Senior Fellow Dennis Avery [4], have discovered an artful argument to prove that we don't have to worry about climate change. Specifically, they found "t [5] housands of museum paintings that portrayed sunnier skies during the Medieval Warming and more cloudiness during the Little Ice Age [5] ."

Well, no wonder everyone is so nostalgic about Medieval times: the weather was better. Or, at the very least, the painters were more cheerful.

Faithful DeSmog readers will know from previous posts [1] that Singer is happy to tell the most flagrant and easily disputed lies on behalf of his oily clients. Here's a man who denied an oil-industry connection even while Exxon was citing him as a funding recipient on its own website [6]. We also know that Exxon has funded the Hudson institute and that Avery has (coincidentally?) shifted his preoccupation from misrepresenting the cuddly nature of pesticides [7] to propagating doubt about climate change.

We know that ever since the Oregon Petition [8], these clowns have been rustling up bogus lists of "scientists" who dispute the science behind climate change.

What we don't know - what is, indeed, unknowable - is whether either Singer or Avery will ever develop a conscience, or even a passing sense of embarrassment.

As when waiting for North American governments to start taking this issue seriously, we live in hope.