Thankyou all. A higher percentage of thoughtful and reasoned posts to this thread lately. I certainly can agree with the statement that reading about complex subjects with a high degree of comprehension is a tiresome task since I stayed up all last night reading the preliminary synopsis of the IPCC report several times. If you 50+ folks are a bit slothful with your can't do characteristics, cheer up....it gets better after your 60.
Now I don't want to be accused of critical thinking but.....I think that I may have identified a handful of scientists who aren't sure about the human effects on global warming....and surprisingly they do not appear to be under the influence of "big oil". There are a group of researchers trying to make sense of the possibliliy that several of the bodies in our solar system are warming up at the same time earth is. Not that they are in possession of the answer, but they are out there. I suspect that there may be others.
As to the fear that a mere consensus might cause us to give up a few rights...well since that is one of the more common rules of a democratic republic I guess that we may just be stuck with it. Now only if the consensus could be more informed.....there's an idea.