It's a challenge Wayne. The reality of global warming is that within our lifetime our world will become far hotter, far wilder and far less pleasant to live in. In fact in many areas uninhabitable.
You take the view that this is just not going to happen. That somehow 20-30 years of research, examination and finally physical evidence of warming cannot be compared to a relative handful of people who dispute the evidence.
If you wanted to consider a valid comparison think about the public debates on cigarette smoking and asbestos related disease.
Doctors in London 1939 established that cigarette smoking was causing a huge increase in lung cancer. And yet the tobacco industry continued its promotion, development, advertising and misinformation on the facts.
During the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's the industry just lied and lied to protect profits.
Asbestos was similarly identified as a killer in the 30's. Same story of deliberate lies and malfeasance. In both cases it seemed amazing that in the face of repeated proof that their products were killers, spurious arguments of "individual right to smoke" "freedom of thought" deliberately twisted research, national bribery, and so on allowed both industries to continue making awesome profits while killing millions of people.
Does any of this sound familiar Wayne?
It might because apart from many similarities in the arguments it so happens that the same immoral, lying bastards who kept the tobacco industry going are the ones who developed a similar patter on global warming in the 90's and to this day.
We've been stooged Wayne et al. When we finally realised in the 80's that we were on the wrong track as far as the impact of CO2 on the atmosphere we had some sort of rough chance of turning things around. Twenty years later that opportunity is thin... and that's being wildly optimistic.
I have attached a story which outlines with dates, names and evidence the process that used the tobacco lobbyists skills for Global Warming deniers.
The denial industry
For years, a network of fake citizens' groups and bogus scientific bodies has been claiming that science of global warming is inconclusive. They set back action on climate change by a decade. But who funded them? Exxon's involvement is well known, but not the strange role of Big Tobacco. In the first of three extracts from his new book, George Monbiot tells a bizarre and shocking new story
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/19/ethicalliving.g2