Nate silver made an interesting point in The Signal and the Noise that a whole lot more people "believe" in "the greenhouse effect" than they do in "climate change" and that contrary to the assertions of most "skeptics" the argument over "anthropocentric global warming" is over "anthropocentric" not "global warming." Unfortunately, most "skeptics" like to argue "it's science, duh" without really noticing that their opponents aren't arguing the mechanisms, they're arguing the validity of the data leading to an anthropocentric interpretation of climate change. I, for one, can explain "the greenhouse effect" no problem. They first started teaching that when I was in 5th grade. Have a nuanced article about the validity of the data indicating anthropocentric climate change? Well, the data has convinced me but I'm nowhere near entrenched enough to debate it.
I wonder if they still teach the greenhouse effect. I remember learning a lot about the environment in grade school, before the environment was a politically divisive issue. We had a second grade choir concert in which one of the songs was about turning off the faucet when you brush your teeth, and another about the evils of polystyrene. Imagine if my music teacher had to tell us that the inability of polystyrene to break down in landfills was "just a theory". My how times have changed...
Dude, remember acid rain? How that was going to be the downfall of us all? Or the hole in the ozone layer? http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/6e7ff51a-3f5b-4b91-8411-98786c01b740/images/animation.gif it's almost as if we can fix things when we acknowledge them as fact and work to correct them. mk - here's a great reason why animated gifs should be allowed.