As a Warmist may I ask those who, and let us face it there are many, think I know nothing about this subject, to consider the following
what if you are right
What if some huge conspiracy exists to do what?
Harm the world's economy? kill coal
IF you think like that why could it not be the very opposite?

Dear Belly,

People like Hasbeen, individual, mhaze, Loudmouth and ttbn are suffering from paranoid delusion. They are probably the same people who argued against taking action to prevent the depletion of the ozone layer in the 1980s by banning CFCs. They believe that they are being persecuted by the wider community, which they believe is trying to do them harm. The good news is that their mental illness is treatable by psychiatrists.

Belly,

No one, other than you, is talking about a huge conspiracy. Its just that you've been taught that almost all scientists buy the 'we're all gunna die' story. But they don't so there isn't a conspiracy, just a lack of information getting out about how few scientists really buy the whole thing.

"IF you think like that why could it not be the very opposite?"

Yes it could. And why couldn't it be the opposite of what you think?

The fact is we don't know the answers to these questions. We don't know exactly how much warming is going on. We don't know if its unusual. We don't know if or how much is man-made. We don't know if it will continue or if it does if it'll be dangerous to man or beneficial to man. We don't know if curtailing CO2 will make any difference.

There is so much we don't know. But we do know that some people want to up-end our economy while all the 'don't knows' remain don't knows. And we do know that at least some of them want to up-end society, not to combat AGW but are just using AGW to make changes that have nothing to do with warming.

mhaze if one side is wrong then they are indeed victims of a conspiracy
Think about it surely that is clear
Now ask why would either side want to say the other is wrong
And I am far from the only person to mention a conspiracy
Truly think you have seen but maybe forgotten, the thought the UN is behind false claims of global warming,to try to, [it gets funnier] put a Socialist one world government in place
Constracy is not be any means a new word in this subject

I tend not to believe in conspiracies, they would be too much work to maintain without falling apart. Faking anything must be very difficult: the conspirers would have to simultaneously ensure, on the one hand, that nobody twigs to what is going on, and on the other, that everything works exactly right.

BUT it's entirely possible that people who do believe in conspiracy theories of any sort are either (or both) so simple that they can't see the possibility of just another point of view; OR are mentally unbalanced themselves, believing perhaps that someone in the world is out to get them - i.e. paranoid. OR of course, in Mr Opinionated's case, barely out of nappies.

Yes, there's global warming, with perhaps a multitude of causes, too much CO2 being one possible cause. I'm not sure how much CO2 is being produced at the moment over the Sahara Desert but it's having huge effects in Europe where Sahara winds blow towards. I'm inclined to Phillip Adams' part-solution for global warming: plant a hell of a lot more trees to soak up the CO2 just in case, since, after all, trees are fundamentally made of CO + water + sunlight. And that's all relatively free, so why not ?

Joe