re: #310 Slumbering Behemoth

No problem. Another body - almost said - naw fuck it I will say it - another planet that sceptics bring up is Pluto. It has been warming for years, true, but what sceptics have a habit of not mentioning is that it is on a long elliptical orbit that takes many years to complete, and for the period concerned it was nearing the sun. This is from another article from MIT on this, which also accounts for a lag in the effect that sceptics will likely try to exploit:

web.mit.edu

David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii who measured the size of Pluto in the late 1980s using a series of occultations and eclipses involving Pluto’s satellite, noted that even though Pluto was closest to the sun in 1989, a warming trend 13 years later shouldn’t be unexpected. “It takes time for materials to warm up and cool off, which is why the hottest part of the day on Earth is usually around 2 or 3 p.m. rather than local noon, when sunlight is the most intense,” Tholen said. Because Pluto’s year is equal to about 250 Earth years, 13 years after Pluto’s closest approach to the Sun is like 1:15 p.m. on Earth. “This warming trend on Pluto could easily last for another 13 years,” Tholen estimated.