Your point? How's this for a psychological mechanism: Tell a lie often enough, give it a load of media attention, bring in some self-appointed experts, bring in an ex-politician as spokesman and people might just start believing you. One of the biggest misconceptions the public has about science is that research is a straightforward process of making measurements, and then seeing whether the data support hypothesis A or B. The truth is that the interpretation of data is seldom that simple. There are all kinds of subjective decisions that must be made along the way, and the scientist must remain vigilant that he or she is not making those decisions based upon preconceived notions. Data are almost always dirty, with errors of various kinds. Which data will be ignored? Which data will be emphasized? How will the data be processed to tease out the signal we think we see? My post wasn't so much an argument for or against either case but rather a notation of a disturbing phenomenon that plays into this debate as well as others. In a way it ties very well in with the rest of your post, in a way you may not realize. Your description of how to convince the public and convey your own brand of truth is interesting. It's pretty much the same strategy the tobacco industry used decades ago. It's also a double edged sword in this discussion since it is equally applicable to both sides. People who denies human effects on the climate has been show to cherry pick data, make shady interpretation and develop strategies for handling media. Given two corrupt systems and an inability to interpret the base data, how is the public (and politicians) supposed to determine who is trustworthy? In such cases, I prefer to go by majority. Given the extreme consequences in this particular case, even a slim majority would be enough to encourage me to play it safe. I do not gamble with millions of lives for the sake of burning fossil fuel for another 100 years.