Jeff Nesmith of Cox News Service investigates the controversy over "Reconstructing Climatic and Environmental Changes of the Past 1,000 Years: A Reappraisal," a paper published recently in the British scientific journal Energy and Environment. The report suggests that the current global warming is not unprecedented, implying that it's the result of a natural cycle rather than a buildup of greenhouse gases related to fossil fuel combustion. The study was underwritten by the American Petroleum Institute, natch, and was authored by scientists with ties to the energy industry. Fair and balanced. [Link]

The study also illustrates a strategy adopted by some energy companies in the late 1980s to attack the credibility of climate science, said John Topping, president of the Climate Institute and a former Republican congressional staffer who founded the institute in 1986.

By relying on the news media's inclination to include both sides of a story, the industries were able to create the impression that scientists were deeply divided over climate change, Topping said. "It was all very shrewdly done," he said.