I don’t think that is really fair to say. I mean I know why you are saying it and all, but you have to understand that those of us who lived through the Ice Age scare of the 70s/80s remember the scientists being convinced about that too. The Secretary General to the UN even made a proclamation that we had reached the point of no return. So now with GW trotted out only a decade or so later it makes a lot of us a little bit skeptical.
But even that aside, the real problem for a lot of us is that we keep hearing scientists complaining that there is conflicting evidence, we keep hearing alternate theories about what is going on, and then at the same time we get a hearty dose of media hysterics (which has almost always proven to be false) along with big powerful forces converging on a way to make money off the problem. Then every now and then a scientist pops up who just retired, etc. and admits that the only reason most scientists go along with climate change is to keep their funding. And if all of that weren’t bad enough we have a complete lack of intelligent debate on the issue. And I mean intelligent. Every time I hear about a counter-model to GW I think OK, what do I know? Maybe it’s ridiculous? Let’s find out, but instead of discrediting these contradicting hypothoses with facts, the GW community just rolls their collective eyes and either ignores it or says the science is agreed or simply belittles the naysayer. Is it so much to ask for a well thought-out rebuttal to all of these skeptics? Is it so much to want a panel of experts on both sides who might be ready to engage in meaningful talks so that everyone can get on the same page? Instead we are treated like children and the stuff with substance is swept under the rug–the skeptic is derided as a lunatic and the other scientists (we imagine) are shown why they should be careful about stepping outside the group.
I mean it’s not like scientists have ever stood as a group against a small minority of outspoken critics before and been proven to be wrong, right? Oh wait, that happens all the time. Do you remember how long it took for a lone doctor to convince the rest of humanity that just washing your hands between performing an autopsy and assisting in the delivery room was a good idea? Here is the hint: he died in an asylum for his efforts:
"Despite various publications of results where hand washing reduced mortality to below 1%, Semmelweis’s observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and Semmelweis could offer no acceptable scientific explanation for his findings. Semmelweis’s practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory and Joseph Lister, acting on the French microbiologist’s research, practiced and operated, using hygienic methods, with great success. In 1865, Semmelweis was committed to an asylum, where he died at age 47 of pyaemia, after being beaten by the guards, only 14 days after he was committed."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
How about apparently every single advance made in physics? In astronomy? Always the group against the one guy who didn’t care if he was with the cool crowd. Always that one guy getting made fun of in the press and at meetings.
That’s the stuff that makes me suspicious. That’s the stuff that makes me not so sure anymore. If we had a media that reported facts and not hyperbole I would be more ready to believe a guy who claims science has proven a build-up of carbon dioxide (the very stuff that, as an aquaculturist, I pump into my habitat to triple plant growth) is going to cause a catastrophe and so we should all be very very ready to radically cut back on our lifestyles and start paying carbon taxes–right before he gets on his private jet and returns to his #3 home for the summer so he can concentrate on his new carbon-trading company.
I mean I actually want to know the truth about this stuff. I don’t want to be led by the nose and I don’t want to be in denial.
I mean there is gullible and there is credulous, but I just want reality. Is that so much to ask?