On Tuesday night, October 23rd, 2012, the US Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) is airing a program called Climate of Doubt.

Here is how PBS describes the program, along with a preview:

"Four years ago, climate change was a hot issue and politicians from both sides seemed poised to act. Today public opinion on the climate issue has cooled considerably. Politicians either ignore it or proclaim their skepticism. What’s behind this massive reversal? On Oct 23, FRONTLINE goes inside the organizations that fought the scientific establishment to shift the direction of the climate debate."

The program focuses mainly on how and why the politics and public perception of the climate issue have shifted in the USA. However, PBS also consulted with Skeptical Science to potentially reproduce The Escalator for the program.

We don't yet know if The Escalator made the final cut of the program or if SkS will get any credit, but the program should be well worth watching regardless.

Americans can check their local listings to see when the program will air in their local areas, and the program should also be available online after it airs.

We have also updated both the global surface temperature and Arctic sea ice Escalators.  [See links].

The surface temperature Escalator had previously used Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) data; however, BEST is a land-only temperature dataset.

Therefore, the new temperature Escalator uses an average of GISS, NCDC, and HadCRUT4 monthly global surface tempererature anomalies from January 1970 through August 2012.