Who Said The Science is Settled?

Andy Revkin, former NYT climate reporter, now a freelancer with the Times, claims in the comments here:

there's a decent case made in the following link that no one (except skeptics) has uttered the phrase "the science is settled" with respect to global warming: http://j.mp/settledNOT 

that tiny link cites... Wikipedia as his source, and that wikipedia article is by... William M. Connolley.


Comment #72 from Brian in Colorado deserves repeating in full:

Andy, I'm surprised you're contending that only skeptics are using the phrase "the science is settled," and shocked that you're backing it up with a Wikipedia article.

A 5 minute google search starts with an article in today's NYT quoting the EPA's Lisa Jackson: "The science behind climate change is settled, and human activity is responsible for global warming," http://www.nytimes.com...

Other hits include NPR quoting Al Gore in 2007, editorials in The Atlantic, and quotes from the Sierra Club. I'm certain more searching would turn up a longer list.

Your (and Wikipedia's) assertion seems to be in line with Gavin Schmidt's contention that "The phrase 'the science is settled' is associated almost 100% with contrarian comments on climate and is usually a paraphrase of what ’some scientists’ are supposed to have said."

I don't rely on Wikipedia, and I know Real Climate spins and exaggerates most everything; but I've come to expect more thorough research from you. 

Andy's response to having his false claim pointed out is to say weakly, "glad you had more time to sift."  But a google search is not more time consuming than hunting up 'the science is settled' at Wikepedia, and any reporter worth his salt should know better than to quote Wikipedia as a reliable and objective source on a controversial topic such as climate science and AGW.  I just googled it and the first link was to Al Gore making that very claim before the Senate.  And here's Marc Armbinder making that claim, and here we have Heather M. of the Climate Crossroads blog with the Sierra Club claiming:

This is the truth, folks, the science is settled: Global warming is real and humans are causing it.

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