Being a member of the general public and not having a firm understanding of the all the science fields related to Climate Change and hoping to avoid a grade reduction
, which sources should one use that can be shared with this board that general public can understand ?
I'm not being cute, as the general public does have a stake in this debate.
Yes indeed, the public has a stake in it. You hit upon one of the big problems with the Internet. It can be very difficult to find accurate data or data that has not been spun. A perfect example is this debate. No shortage of links to "prove" that your statements or my statements are wrong or correct.
In my business, I must deal with facts. I am not allowed to slip something by that has not been fact checked.
Some people love the net because they can get any answer they want to any question they dare to ask. Some people simply pick the first link Google returns and post that. In most cases, the poster has not actually researched the hard data; they simply assume it is accurate because it sounds reasonable.
Fortunately, you can find the truth if you do the research. On a forum, however, few people are willing to spend a day ploughing through the crap to get to the basic facts tp post a reply to someone they disagree with.
And fewer still know how to parse raw data and draw a meaningful conclusion.
Few people are truly qualified to discuss GW at a deep technical level so they must use the web to find the answers. Sometimes we get into arguments because one person has a different set of "facts" to support their ideas than I have.
Sometimes, we simply do not want our sacred cows slaughtered and what seems outrageous or seems like a lie is actually the truth. When you post actual facts, some people do not believe what you say. Their exposure to the largely liberal media disagrees, so the facts must not be actual facts, but lies.