"I don't suppose you went to the trouble of googling Ross McKitrick, did you? His claims are nothing new, and have been thoroughly addressed over the years, including by the IPCC."

Well, no I didn't google him, because I was already aware of his background. Unlike robert, I have been following this issue. If you mean by "thoroughly addressed over the years" that everyone with a clue, now knows the Hockey Stick was incorrectly done, involved cherry picking and lousy amateur practice in terms of statistics. And is no longer used by the IPCC, who at one time thought it the best thing since sliced bread. Gore even tried to claim you wasn't using Mann's graph- but as it turns out that was again another false claim, like most of Gore's claims.