Steve McIntyre, who with Ross McKitrick has been the author of the long-running hockey stick controversy, has replotted all of the climate reconstructions recently reported in New Scientist magazine and has discovered – well, he seems to have discovered a whole equipment bag full of hockey sticks (see illustration).

Under McIntrye’s careful analysis, some of the climate reconstructions don’t extend back fully to 1,000 years and some peter out more recently for lack data. And all have been recalibrated to spend a bit more time above zero. But taken individually or together, they all seem to suggest exactly what the much-debated Mann hockey stick suggested, lo those many Congressional hearings ago: that we are currently enjoying (or enduring) the hottest period on earth in the last 1,000 years.

Thanks, Steve, for clearing that up.