Naive
Oh, boy...
"So, if I take a sceptical view (like scientists are supposed to) about AGW, I'm just another species of creationist?"
Obviously not, but your poor reading skills and/or naivety do not bode well... But at least you can write pretty Latin words.
First of all, I never said whether I agreed with the theory in question! You guys should hold your knees from jerking so hard. For the record, I do not have any opinion on that theory mentioned, because I have not properly studied it nor the field of work required to understand it -- differently from certain people, I am not presumptuous enough to think that I am qualified to judge other people's scientific work, completely unrelated to mine, based on the likes of El Reg or Scientific American articles, say.
Now, to the REAL point I was trying to make up there: the problem I see is the tactics used there, which you obviously did not get from my post. The "it's just a theory" line is a perfect and glaring example.
Only someone who knows nothing about science (or is dishonestly trying to spread FUD, confusion, whatever) uses it. Hence the reference to creationists, who love to use that all the time.
Because using the "it's just a theory" line (which is technically correct, but then say it for EVERYTHING) is intended to make it sound to the layperson that the idea in discussion is a hunch or a guess. "Evolution? That's just a theory, right? Not anything real, don't worry." NOW, if the theory is right or wrong, that is a different story. But saying "it just a theory" is dishonest and calculated to confuse. You might say it's an unsubstantiated or weak theory, for example. Or you might say it's not even a theory at all, but maybe just barely a hypothesis. Or not even that. Not even wrong, say. But I fear most people here wouldn't be able to tell the difference between theory and hypothesis, because they are too busy doubting everything (or at least everything they don't like) even if they don't know the basics of the fields they are doubting. Skepticism is very good, if used well and not just as a stupid "doubt everything" idea, as some seem to imply. I don't have the time to read everything, society is about delegating tasks. I already have more material than I can find time to read in my narrow scientific field (and I'm wasting time here, ha!). So I unfortunately won't be able to become an expert on everything under the Sun. Tough life, but I can live with that.
BTW, to remind you of the main point of my most: besides the "just a theory" problem, you might have noticed my mentioning of the "cowboy x injuns" tone of the books and articles, and the presupposition that one side is completely honest, competent, selfless and the other is a complete bunch of crooks who don't know anything only trying to profit from whatever they are trying to do. Obviously such tactics are employed by all sides in the debate. Just pointing out that no one seems to care about that. While this other interesting tactic does NOT make the favored side wrong (or right, for that matter), it is very suspicious of the motivations of the book/article/interview authors when such simplistic maniqueism is so strongly displayed.