I’m not referring to the fact that global warming is due “not to human activity but primarily to a long, moderate solar-linked cycle,” but to the annual cycle of news coverage where the MSM discovers (or should I say, rediscovers) President Bush finally acknowledging the existence of global warming.

Associated Press, Jan. 27, 2007:

“Now even George W. Bush says [climate change is] a problem. […] [D]uring last week’s State of the Union address Bush finally referred to global warming as an established fact.”

Finally! The first time! At least, since 2005:

In 2005, however, Europeans sensed a shift when Bush was asked about the issue in Denmark. “Listen,” [President Bush] said, “I recognize that the surface of the Earth is warmer and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem.”

And that was — finally! – the first time Bush had acknowledged it…since 2004, when:

A Bush administration report suggests that evidence of global warming has begun to affect animal and plant populations in visible ways, and that rising temperatures in North America are due in part to human activity.

Finally! The first time the Bush administration ever acknowledged global warming! At least, since 2001, when President Bush said:

First, we know the surface temperature of the earth is warming. […] And the National Academy of Sciences indicate that the increase is due in large part to human activity.

Apparently, the media has to rediscover this “finally” moment every year or so.

…and the cycle continues.