1998: Hockey stick hype coincided with real-life temperature spike. Scientists and public fooled by natural variation?

Tom Nelson
Below is some background information on late 1990s hockey stick hype, the simultaneous elevation of newly-minted Ph.D. Michael Mann to IPCC lead author, the conversion of "many scientists" to believers, and the real-life temperature 1998 temperature spike.

My hypothesis is that the natural 1998 temperature spike was crucial in selling both scientists and the public on the validity of Mann's bogus hockey stick. If the exact same paper had been published after, say, an 18+ year hiatus, not nearly as many people would have been fooled."