First up on my slate this morning was a session on paleoclimate temperature reconstructions for the past millennium. This, of course, involves the famous ‘hockey stick’ reconstruction showing that temperatures in the 20th century were unequalled in the past 1,000 years. That, of course, is according to paleoclimatologist Michael Mann, his coauthors, and a National Academy of Sciences study that broadly reaffirmed their findings earlier this year.

It’s always fun to be in the same room with Mann and his chief antagonist, Steve McIntyre. McIntyre, a mineral exploration consultant from Canada, has spent years working to debunk Mann’s hockey stick graph and its implications. Earlier this year, both spent an afternoon at the NAS presenting their respective sides of the argument to the panel of assembled experts. Mann left the room without giving McIntyre so much as a glance.

Sadly, there were no new fireworks today. Mann spent much of McIntyre’s talk looking down at his lap and shaking his head. And McIntyre sat back down after his talk without even arguing with the other critics in the audience. Could it be finally true? Has the community actually moved on? Will we ever have to hear about hockey sticks ever again?