Hoisted from the comments: it's the dog that doesn't bark that tells the story

Jeff S. says:

Your last point [failure of skeptics to create an alternative to hockey stick analysis is significant -ed.] is similar to another point you made on this blog that I don't think gets made often enough, or really, ever. If it is possible to construct a plausible, defensible climate model wherein a doubling of atmospheric CO2 leads to minimal warming, it is reasonable to expect that the allied forces of the fossil fuel industry (the largest industry in the world) and the skeptic community could have produced one by now. As Sherlock Holmes might have it, it's the dog that doesn't bark that tells the story.

(Links added by me.)

Of course I like the comment since it goes along with my view, but I wish I thought of the Sherlock Holmes piece.