I also started to read
The arguments on both sides are pretty much as shaky as each other. As "enlightened" I also had to read a few months ago when having quite a heated debate with the very worst kind of denier, a far-right conspiracy-believer republican, who, when he ran out of arguments just kept on calling academics liars, over and over again. Unfortunately, I think, there is a core of very intelligent people, dwarfed by masses of people jumping on the bandwagon which detracts from the debate as a whole. There are three points I'd like to make without having to go into the specifics of arguments:
1. There isn't a conspiracy in academia. The majority of people involved ARE intelligent, HAVE looked at evidence and HAVE made an informed decision. They are not doing it just to make money, in fact, if anything, it's more likely that the scam is on the other side, with oil companies funding plenty of studies, and simply not allowing studies that show them to be wrong to be published. Anyway, I digress.
2. The majority of scientists DO think climate change is "man-made" (by a pretty large ratio).
3. In times when there's evidence that suggests a catastrophe, it generally makes sense to do all you can to prevent said catastrophe, whether there's counter-arguments or not. If the evidence was evenly distributed, then yes, there would be a strong argument, however, looking at the ratios of peer-reviewed papers supporting or (and I deliberately phrase this) disproving a section of climate change theory alone, there is a huge majority in the supporting papers.
Now I don't really know what the effects of climate change are going to be, but I do know that at some point we're going to run out of fossil fuels, and delaying this as long as possible until we have the supporting power sources, and building those sources, is not going to be a bad thing. Just as it is inherently stupid to pick your kids up from school in a hummer, unless you have twenty kids.
When I've come face to face with the other side, I've generally found them inherently selfish, and not people who have looked at the facts (although I don't think many of the enlightened do either), and are quite happy to say "I've got a big car/power-guzzling company/big coal fire, and I don't want to cut back, no matter what" and are also quite happy to believe that the vast majority of scientists are lying to make money. I'm quite happy to admit that many of the "enlightened" come off as smug, arrogant tossers, but that doesn't mean they're wrong.
As for the man-made issue, I thought it was pretty general consensus, even amongst naysayers that the current climate change was caused by man, it was more a question of, if it is, what are the effects of it continuing another 20 years.