"1. The scientists are wrong - they have misinterpreted the data or are looking at the wrong things - check out my critique of the science (PS: I am not a scientist) or check out my favourite scientist who says .....blah blah blah....

.....1 and 2 seem possible but extremely unlikely."
-Rich2

Yeah, I bet a few hundred of years ago that you'd have been one of the greybeards sitting about stroking your nice grey beard and saying 'Well, my Royal Fellows, this phlogiston theory seems water-tight. It's possible we're wrong, but extremely unlikely. Let's have a brandy to celebrate being right'.

Or maybe you subscribe to the ideas of the world-famous physicist William Thompson, aka Lord Kelvin, who didn't believe in X-rays, didn't believe radio waves could be utilised to make effective technology, who believed that we'd all be dead by now because coal combustion draws oxygen out of the atmosphere and Kelvin (mis)calculated that we'd have combusted our breathable supply of O2 some time ago, and who claimed circa 1900 that "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" (and that's not an exhasutive list of his massive cock-ups). He also made incredibly important contributions to the physics, especially in the field of thermodynamics, and has the distinctive honour of lending his title to one of the two SI base units named after people. And he is possibly my favourite scientist ever (I'm also very fond of Cavendish) - yeah, he got a lot of stuff very, very wrong. But he was a clever bloke who also got a lot of stuff right, and he wasn't afraid to stick his neck out and advance ballsy hypotheses.

continued from above...

Scientists get things wrong. All the time. They don't do it with malice aforethought; they certainly don't do it to generate research grants. But they're not the Delphic Oracle, and they certainly don't have Papal infallibility. Although if you believe they do then I guess it's not so great a stretch to revere the Titaness Gaia.

One of my favourite scientists is Sir Isaac Newton, possibly the greatest physicist the world has ever seen. But also an alchemist. And wrong about his physics, too. But everyone, and I mean everyone (not just a large majority), thought that Newton was bang on the money for a long time - until it became apparent that he wasn't.

Most scientists across most of the history of science have gotten most things mostly wrong. To suddenly assume that they're batting 100 flies in the face of the vast bulk of historical evidence, and strikes me as a somewhat denialist position.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should assume the scientists are wrong. That would be folly. But it is equally folly to assume they're right - history shows that they're usually wrong.

@ Shintaro

Shintaro rescues

much distressed damsel.

Believers in green houses

shouldn’t blow hot air.

Haiku samurai

holds master franchise.

Aliester

one would hope you mean't that the amount of unspecified uncommon common sense is more and not less than what is commonly known as a usual or common amount of commonsense.

I was surprised the moderator would allow such an unintended double entendre. But then he's much more charitable than I.

Read the authors credentials!

Why would anyone bother to read what a starry eyed and idealistic student has to say.

Believers in human induced global warming will hold their religous beliefs no matter what!

What the world needs is a few more people with practical experience.

Starry eyed she may be, but good on her.