It’s not that “pollution=global warming”, it’s that some gases will absorb/re-emit radiation at certain frequencies. Now all of those gases occur naturally, but we also produce them (primarily through combustion, but also through ‘natural’ ways like cows burping and things). It’s just a question of scale here (are we doing this on a large enough scale to have an effect?).
It’s perfectly reasonable to look at things like sun-cycles, the earth wobbling, measuring incoming radiation vs. reflected/outgoing radiation, natural sources/sinks for greenhouse gases (volcanoes and impacts have had big effects in the past, for instance), etc, and a lot of scientists do. If you legitimately study this stuff, all you do is sit around and think of factors that could affect things, and then try to model/measure them. On the other hand, you have a lot of moron hippies that just want an excuse to think industrialization is the devil, and don’t actually understand any of the science behind what they’re parroting. I put people that say “OMG, the earth had different climate in the past, global warming due to human-produced greenhouse gases is a lie!!!” into the same category. They don’t understand the science behind their position, they’re just parroting whatever someone told them and using it as an excuse to think hippies are stupid.
It’s no better when our side does it than when their side does. I would agree with your ‘blank stare’ comment, and I think it’s a shame that more people don’t study (or at least pay attention when they have it in high school!) chemistry, physics or engineering.
But how are you hoping to get your reasonable approach accepted in the camp of the Global Warmers? I believe in the 80-20 rule when it comes to leftward leaning boffins. That is, 80% of them are interested in the polemics and 20% (if that) are interested in the science, or even providing some sort of reasoned hypothesis.
And that politically-minded 80% are getting damn near 100% of the funding, media attention, and probably the hors d'ouevres at faculty parties.
Anthropogenic Global Warming ... or Cooling .... is the most damnable hoax since the South Sea Bubble, or Tulip Mania. It is insane that developed countries are buying into it.
In regard to Carbon Dioxide "emissions," it is merely the only by-product of combustion that has not yet been legislated to some mythical "acceptable level." What next? Water vapor?
This has become a religious war. How can the voice of reason prevail?