The authoritative Monthly CO2 Report for freezing December 2009 warns those skeptical of extremist claims about the climate not to crow too soon: the faction profiting from the scare will not give up. Editorial Comment: Page 3.

Professor Bill Gray demonstrates that hurricanes have grown less intense as the world has warmed. Pages 4-6.

IPCC assumes CO2 concentration will reach 836 ppmv by 2100, but, for nine years, CO2 concentration has headed straight for only 570 ppmv by 2100. This factor alone almost halves all of the IPCC’s temperature projections. Pages 8-9.

Since 1980 global temperature has risen at only 2.5 °F (1.4 °C)/century, not 7 F° (3.9 C°) as IPCC predicts. Pages 10-12.

Sea level rose just 8 inches in the 20th century, and has scarcely risen since 2006. The oceans are not warming. Pages 13-14.

Arctic sea-ice extent is now beyond its summer low, but there was more summer ice than there was in 2007 or 2008. In the Antarctic, sea ice extent reached a record high in 2007. Global sea ice extent shows little trend for 30 years. Pages 15-18.

Hurricane and tropical-cyclone activity is almost at its lowest since satellite measurement began. Page 19.

A cold start to winter set snow and ice records across the US and Eurasia. Pages 20-21.

Sunspot activity is back to normal: but, looking back it was a long – and cool – solar minimum. Page 22.

The (very few) benefits and the (very large) costs of the Waxman/Markey Bill are illustrated at Pages 23-26.

The Solar Ap Index of geomagnetic activity hits a new low: the graphs are in this month’s Science Focus. Pages 27-28.

As always, there’s our “global warming” ready reckoner, and our monthly selection of scientific papers. Pages 29-35.

The medieval warm period was real, global, and warmer than the present, as our global map shows. Page 36.

And finally ... a cartoon that celebrates the extreme cold and snow that marked the end of the Copenhagan affair. Page 37.