A few general rules from an actual card-carrying scientist, courtesy Steve D. You're the man, Steve! Read on ...
1. If you argue against climate forecasts by saying we can’t predict the weather two weeks ahead, you are utterly unqualified to be in the debate. If you don’t know the difference between weather and climate, go take an intro class on meteorology. (Hint: it’s a little like micro- versus macro-economics)
2. Anything you get off a blog or the popular media is worthless. If you can’t refer to the actual scientific literature – real journals, not the bogus ones started by denialists – you don’t have any qualifications to join the debate.
3. NASA said it would go to the Moon and did. NASA said it would build a space shuttle and did. NASA says climate data is showing the earth getting warmer. And you have accomplished…?
4. Anything by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine is a joke. The vast majority of the people who signed their Petition are not climate researchers.
5. TV meteorologists are not climate scientists.
6. “Arrogant” is a favorite buzzword to dismiss real authorities, whether they’re climatologists, evolutionary scientists, or 9-11 debunkers. Speaking from a position of expertise is not arrogance. Speaking from a position of zero expertise is.
7. Scientists are not “self-appointed experts.” They are real experts. The “self-appointed experts” are the people who think they can read a couple of blogs or Jack Chick tracts and enter a technical debate as equals.

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