I just can't buy that thousands upon thousands of scientists from every corner of the world are part of some liberal conspiracy to stir up panic about global warming.
Most of them aren't. Most of them are bandwagon jumpers-on. It will not be the first time in the history of science that large numbers of scientists jumped on a bandwagon opinion, not wanting to be left off the wagon. In those times, it was usually the mavericks that ended up being correct. Copernicus is an example, but there are many others. The one thing that all bandwagon-mentality scientific positions have in common is their incestuous relationships with public policy (politics). Michael Crighton gave a lecture at CalTech in 2003 where he addressed the unhealthy relationship between governments and scientists, and how brave, bold scientists bucked the conventional wisdom to be proven right, but in their lifetime were scorned. Here is a link to the lecture:
"Alians Caused Global Warming." It is a REALLY long read, but extremely enlightening about how science by consensus has led us down the wrong path in the past.
I see no downside in reducing or even ending our dependence on fossil fuels. This should have been done years ago.
Valid points, which I find no argument with. I would add that those few scientists which are the ones really pushing the global warming alarmism are too associated with the IPCC of the UN. In fact without the UN pushing this topic so forcefully (and we know why it is... world socialism), I have my doubts that it would have so many people jumping "on the wagon".