Anyone heard about this new research on ikaite crystals by Zunli Lu et. al. (Syracuse)? Climate deniers seem to be thrilled by it (see comments for more).

Its a yawn. The abstract says:

This ikaite record qualitatively supports that both the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age extended to the Antarctic Peninsula.

So they're promoting it as somehow showing that the MWP was global, rather than an Atlantic phenomenon. From that, readers of the denial blogs are supposed to somehow believe that the IPCC isn't trustworthy, and therefore global warming is a hoax. Paleoclimate is hard, and we've only figured out how to do a halfway decent job of it very recently. You're going to find lots of examples of people making modest adjustments like this to our understanding of regional climate variation from before the invention of the thermometer.

At the end of the day, it doesn't do anything to alter to the overall conclusion that human activity has warmed the world, and will continue to do so as long as we emit greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

For more on Steve Hayward, see here: http://www.desmogblog.com/how-heartland-style-climate-sceptic-campaigns-play-hide-deniers-using-secretive-fund