It’s not often that the very conservative editorial page of the Richmond Times Dispatch opines on matters near and dear to the hearts of the environmentally inclined.

So it came as something of a surprise to many when the newspaper editorialized on climate change science on August 29 under the headline “Indisputable.”

Pointing to various media reports on a leaked version of the upcoming IPCC Working Group I report, the newspaper commented on the increased confidence the report expresses concerning human-caused warming.

“The small cadre of committed skeptics likely will dismiss the latest finding as yet another lie by a vast conspiracy bent on imposing one-world government,” the editorial said. “Two decades ago that might have been a defensible position. Today it is laughable.”

“During the past two decades the case for the anthropogenic thesis has grown stronger — not weaker,” it continued. “The latest assessment by the world’s best scientific minds says it has grown stronger still. It is long past time to stop debating the fact of global warming and start debating how to deal with it.”

Sometimes it’s not so much what is said, as who it is doing the saying. That may be the case here.