Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but if desperation is an indicator the consensus edges may start falling to the wayside out of embarrassment sooner rather than later. The media messaging has moved from climate models of doom to extreme messaging of dire health consequences. This evening WP published a piece that the U.S. will need to take in 25% of the refugees displaced from small island nations going under water in the coming decades; this based on the U.S. contribution to CO2 in the atmosphere. You can’t make this stuff up. Politics and media have pushed the persuasive arguments to the edge of reason in the effort to acquire public consensus, that’s the only way to unlock the purse. The U.S, public is pretty much tone deaf now though I believe.
I think all it would take for scientists who have differing ideas to come out from behind the blinds is for a Republican to be elected president, If there was an indication of more diverse funding.
