I believe the data supports the idea that the climate in general in warming. I'm not convinced is is entirely humanity's fault. I'm willing to consider an explanation of the underlying cause that ranges from, 'humanity is having a negligible impact' though to 'we would have been in an ice age by now, instead we're going the other way'.
I don't care who is to blame. I care about:
1. What will the effects be?
2. What mitigating actions can we take?
Far more interesting questions, and it avoids the political aspect. My point was that AGW as a fact is only disputed by a corporately-funded few. Denialism is pointless, as is finger-pointing. We need to concentrate on what to expect and what to do.
If the climate is warming or not depends on your time frame and perspective.
For example, it is certianly warmer now in USA than in colonial times. It is also warmer now than in the 1970s, but one could dispute if it is warmer now than in the 1930s dust bowl years. (Get your 1930s temps from era published paper documents to be safe.)
OTOH if one looks at the Minoan warming, the Roman Warming and the Medieval Warm Period, it seems each warmed less than the previous and all were warmer than now. ie. a series of declining tops.
The intervening cold periods also appear longer and colder moving forward, though that data is harder to acquire. One of the best indicators being where wine could be produced from grapes.
If one looks at northern hemisphere glaciers, almost all (excepting Greenland) did not exist 4000 years ago. We have, on average, been cooling since then.
We need to concentrate on what to expect and what to do.
I agree with that.
Long term it is going to get colder, absent unknown factors.
Short term (a human lifetime) both directions are possible. So unfortunately, we need to prepare for both.
Personally, i expect the ~thirty year cycles to resume, with cooling up next.
But i think there is a significant chance we are about to see the unexpected early return of a longer cold cycle imposed over the above. I'm almost alone in that and certianly could be wrong, but major shifts to cold are almost always preceeded by increased volitility and that's here.
You are correct that it doesn't matter who's to blame. Perhaps i react because i believed the warmist propaganda, even if i didn't buy the cause; and expecting warming, built a house in New Hampshire, and now may likely need to move south.
I'm asking myself do i really want to cut, split and stack this much firewood (or more) each year? Similar question about snow removal effort. Heating livestock water. Shorter growing seasons, etc.