A reporter just wrote me to ask for reactions to this new “analysis” by the good folks at DeSmogBlog, which reports that from 2007 to 2008 blog mentions of combinations of “global warming” plus terms like “hoax” and “lie” and “skeptic” have doubled, suggesting, according to DeSmogBlog,

a very significant upswing in online activity. This trend should be troubling to US policymakers and campaigners wanting to implement new greenhouse gas reduction strategies.

Here is my response:

I just searched “global warming” + pizza and came up with the following:

2007 — 11,168
2008 — 24,907

Maybe there is a connection with secret Domino’s funding? ;-)

Social science this is not.

All the best,

Roger

There is indeed a lot of junk on the internet. Be careful out there.