Latimer, I get climate change information from sources I believe I can trust, such as the National Science Foundation , National Academy of Sciences, and the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The subject of doubt or uncertainty about the causes of recent global warming is touched on in a 2011 CRS report titled Climate Change: Conceptual Approaches and Policy Tools (see link at end of post). In discussing the “Research and Wait-and-See” approach, which best describes current U.S. policy, the report questions whether further research can narrow uncertainties and eliminate all doubt about the causes of the warming. To me this suggests further research may not lessen controversy over the causes.
The report also sees the controversy as over-blown. “In public media, the controversy over causes may appear much greater than the broad scientific agreement that exists: the scientific evidence best supports rising atmospheric concentrations of “greenhouse gases” (GHG) (particularly carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides) and other air pollutants as having contributed to the majority of global average temperature increase since the late 1970s.”
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41973.pdf
IMO, much of the public is not interested in the controversy over the causes of climate change and in the possible consequences of anthropogenic climate change centuries into the future. Continued global warming over the coming decades, however, could make more of the public interested in addressing anthropogenic causes. Unfortunately, there is the risk of “too little, too late.”
