<<Finally some commonsense on this ridiculous topic.Finally some commonsense on this ridiculous topic.>>

But why even mention this stupid topic?
Obviously 98% of those who talk about Santa Claus believe in him, the rest don't bother mentioning his name.

Margaret Thatcher picked this idea in order to promote nuclear plants in England and quash the rebellion of the coal miners and their unions.
That's the whole story, there's nothing else in it.

What is the purpose of this essay? Why are some people so desperate to deny what a majority of the people who have studied the phenomenon agree on?
Of course you are correct when you write:-"but I do know, from history, that minority voices within science are sometimes proven right." They are also regularly proved wrong. So what?
Whether the planet is warming or not, worldwide the air is toxic in most cities, the water is toxic in most rivers, lakes and ponds, Fisheries are fished out, soil quality is seriously degraded, we can't find anywhere to dispose of our waste that is rendering seas and estuaries and dumps deadly poisonous, the soil is toxic in most commercial food growing areas, commercially grown fruit and vegetables are covered in toxic spray residues, human activity has caused as many extinctions as the last great meteor extinction, the natural environment in which we evolved, and which supported us for hundreds of thousands of years has disappeared, with predictably unpleasant consequences. Whether the world is warming or not, surely we should take Rhrosty's ideas and clean up our act or we'll be kicked out of what was once paradise, and certainly won't get our bond back.

Dear Ybgirp,

<<Why are some people so desperate to deny>>

When governments tell you, "in the name of Santa Claus, give us your money", the only ones who are not desperate are those who have no savings, usually because they spent it all as soon as they earned it.

<<worldwide the air is toxic in most cities, the water is toxic...>>

As you care for our planet's air, water, soil and species and want people to take you seriously, you should be the first to denounce that nonsense and remind people that there are REAL reasons for protecting this earth.

It seems to me that most appropriate question is what do the so called skeptics who pretend that human activity is not causing global climate change and environmental destruction too, really believe in. Or what is the ideology that informs their so called skepticism and thus their applied politics.
This one stark image sums it up: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel21.html

And in the case of the applied politics of the Heartland Institute and the Koch brothers. Especially the applied politics and business practices of the Koch brothers as promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council the title of a book TOXIC SLUDGE IS GOOD FOR YOU.

Which is to say that the world-view or ideology that these benighted ghouls promote is 100 percent wall-to-wall nihilistic and anti-human - as depicted in this stark image from the same series.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel17.html

Daffy, like most people, a few years back I simply accepted the global warming dogma, as I accepted most things coming from our scientists.

Then a few things did not ring true. The more study I did on the subject the more I could see a concoction of twisted data & utter garbage.

Add the UN's IPCC way of writing something very far removed from the actual research, & it became obvious we were being fed a fraud.

Climategate confirmed that the truth was not being let get in the way of a push to disenfranchise the average citizen of the western democracies. If for no other reason, than it is impossible to ignore so much smoke of false data & lies, Climategate proved these people will do anything to keep the scam going.

I do not believe any thinking person can still believe the wilder garbage the AGW mob are grasping at, to try to keep their scam alive.

Fortunately it looks like the sun, it's spots & the planet are about to destroy the whole concoction consigning it to history. Unfortunately the perpetrators are unlike to be punished as they should.

Politics has no bearing on my opinion, just a little math.