It's not the first I've heard of it; I'm pretty sure the cyclical oscillation of ocean temperatures even makes it into An Inconvenient Truth but it isn't really focused on as more than another factor that hides global temperature increases. So from a "climate skeptic" standpoint it becomes just another "excuse" as to why this winter is extra-snowy or whatever because unfortunately, climate models are difficult to adequately explain in the 11 seconds CBS This Morning is willing to give over to background science prior to making two talking heads fight.

I think it's fair to say that most climate "skeptics" are older. They probably remember how the narrative in the late '70s/early '80s was that we needed to prepare for the coming ice age and that we'd all die in a hail of acid rain. The first time I heard about "the Greenhouse Effect" it was Weekly Reader letting me know how I'd die when all the CFCs caused a runaway albedo crisis and turned Earth into Venus in my lifetime. All this, of course, was probably to temper the fact that Reagan was busy calling the Soviets "the evil empire" and talking about putting death rays in space so really, death of any sort of natural causes was preferable.

I guess this is my cynic's way of saying "those people that need to be convinced? They need something that can be understood and unequivocally demonstrated in ten seconds or less or they'll just growl like old people."