How many do-overs to “mainstream climatologists” (that’s what The New York Times calls them) get? All of a sudden the notion of a cooling Europe in a globally warming world is out as a certain scenario of the future. Now, the “mainstream climatologists” say Europe will warm along with everywhere else.

“The concern had previously been that we were close to a threshold where the Atlantic circulation system would stop,” said Susan Solomon, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We now believe we are much farther from that threshold, thanks to improved modeling and ocean measurements. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current are more stable than previously thought.”

OK, so why are we to believe the “mainstream climatologists” now? They’ve said otherwise for years. As the cross-examiner so famously said, “Are you lying now or were you lying then?”

Did the “mainstream climatologists” get a memo saying that this cooling idea just is too confusing when we’re trying to sell the world on global warming? Is that why they made the switch, or is there real science behind the change? That would be a first. What this shows, ironically, is that our climate future is far from predictable and that even “mainstream” scientists sometimes don’t know what they’re talking about. In short, the vaunted “consensus” that global warming nutjobs claim is there, simply ain’t.

Interesting, too, is that when a group of scientists says what The New York Times wants them to say they become “mainstream.” Funny how that works.

UPDATE: Global warming is becoming a religion for those who don’t have one. Check out Vanity Fair‘s latest. It has a “macho” Leonardo DiCrapio, a Holy Prius and a papal Al Gore. You can’t make this stuff up.

(h/t Instapundit)