Analyzing Global Warming

I just got an email from a reader suggesting that I conduct an independent analysis on global warming.   I’ve actually received half a dozen suggestions to this effect over the years.    This gentleman writes:  “I think both you and I could be capable of determining the truth, whatever it is, if allowed free access.  Whatever the truth is, it is already there to be seen because of the logistical nature of the whole project.” 

I hate to sound self-deprecating, but I do not consider myself capable of independent analysis of things like this.  I wouldn’t begin to know a) how and where to get access to the right data, and b) how to make sense of it.  I trust science to get this right, and I feel that they have done exactly that; there’s really no reason to think otherwise.  The consensus on anthropogenic global warming is overwhelming, and that’s really all I need to hear.  This is why I believe the theory.  Also, I know some of these people personally which adds to the strength of my conviction. 

The credibility that the consensus of the mainstream scientific community is also why I believe in special relativity, quantum mechanics, the big bang, plate tectonics, evolution, genetics, molecular biology, etc.  I’m flattered by the reader’s remarks, but don’t have the training to do anything other than to read about these subjects and take what I see at face value.  

I’m also incapable of holding a thought in my mind seriously that flies in the teeth of what these people are telling me.  Some people believe the Earth is 6000 years old.  I simply do not.