Matt M McElroy

Matt, apparently one of Bush's scientific advisors reads your LJ.

"The Anonymous Retards" does sound like a cracking good band name though.
Here in Australia we've living with the results of climate change, particularly with a literal transformation of our water/rain system.
A literal 'chickens coming home to roost' after a hundred and fifty odd years of land and tree clearing among other things.

In short, I think people buy into this "isn't not real! It's a conspiracy!" because they're either:
A) Prone to magical or circular thinking
or
B) wanting to believe as their peers tell them it is a hoax.

While it's true a lot of converts to climate change as an idea are mostly in that B) category themselves, there is more than enough independent scientific analysis out there to back up the idea that mankind is forever changing the planet's natural dynamic.

Likewise it's why the concept was changed in the public eye from 'global warming' to 'climate change'. Apart from being an easier sell in the ideas market, we're not entirely sure what the changes are going to be. Not precisely, not yet. I reckon we're due for a shorter period of increased heat, followed by a longer term early-coming Ice Age myself, based on what I've read.

But the definitive scientific answer is yet to be reached. The good thing about science is that it's an ongoing process, less prone to faith statements and willing to change its outlook based upon the data at hand and the conclusions that can be made therein.