The world’s climate is changing due to human consumption of fossil fuels. This is an undisputed fact within the scientific community.
Its pretty simple really. By burning fossil fuels, we are putting more of the energy into the air, which increases the variability within the earth’s atmosphere (see the second law of thermodynamics). Fossil fuels are energies that exist deep within the planet from decayed plant and animal matter during the Paleozoic era, 570 million years ago (Brief History of Fossil Fuels). This is where oil comes from, and it contains massive amounts of energy.
It’s a simple equation that was supposedly debated for the last couple decades, because oil companies don’t like the idea. It threatens their business model and they are multi-billion dollar companies so they have massive influence in the government because of how corrupt the American government is. Then the media reports out that there is a debate in the scientific community when it’s really a consensus.
I think that the big flaw was calling the changes ‘Global Warming’. Poor marketing is science’s biggest flaw and it keeps coming back to bite us in the ass as a species. In 300 years, most ecologists believe there will be a mass extinction event. It is likely that the planet’s will cleanse itself of our existence.
If you are interesting in the subject, I highly recommend Chasing Ice, a documentary about John Balog, a photographer, and his quest to show the effects of climate change through photography and film.