A Nature Geoscience paper (published online) has found that man-made climate change might delay the onset of the next ice age, expected to begin some 1,500 years from now.

This has caused quite a stir among climate skeptics, who have rushed to proclaim that man-made climate change " may save us from the next ice age".

This enthusiastic reporting neatly exposes some inconsistencies in a few of their favourite arguments...

First, it is a tacit admission that man-made climate change is happening, will alter temperatures significantly, and has far-reaching consequences for human society.

This might seem like a surprising thing for climate skeptics to admit.  It's hardly news however that climate skeptic arguments are often selective and incoherent - as we discussed following the publication of the BEST study results.

Secondly, on at least two occasions last year (see here and here for examples), skeptics were claiming that the Earth was poised to enter a new 'mini ice age'.

To subsequently trade on the idea that climate change is good because it will prevent ice ages does look suspiciously like having it both ways at once.

But the biggest problem for the skeptics is that being pleased about a (potential) lack of climate disruption occurring 1,500 years into the future does rather beg the question of why they aren't worried about climate disruption occurring much sooner - over the next century, say.