And it's this: does anybody know if any active scientists have changed their mind about the whole hypothesis from doubters to believers? You can find stories of scientists who originally were advocates, like Judith Curry, but then after more research changed their mind and are now labeled "deniers". Most seem to be people who were well established and safe from being fired, like Curry, who had tenure, and has said that she would not have dared to speak up if she hadn't, if she had been just in the beginning stages of her career, because saying what she is now saying would have made her unemployable in the current era.
But the main question is pretty much this: how many scientists, especially well respected ones, have gone from advocates to "deniers" after studying the hypothesis longer, compared to how many have maybe gone from "denier" to advocate?
Because all you can easily find online are all in the first group. And if there are more of those, or especially if there are none of the latter type, that certainly would say something about the whole thing.
And could be used as a point in arguments with the staunch believers you have to deal with in your life.
True too, but again, that will not work with the believers. But as there are scientists who in the beginning were in that gravy train, but later spoke out against it - and again, they seem to mostly be ones who at that point were secure enough that they no longer had anything they could lose by doing so - having a list should work.
And if you can't find any, or at least not many, old established scientists who would have gone in the other direction - and my guess is that if there are they did that due to threats to their income or careers - well... but if there are those cases I'd of course like to know before using that in an argument.
This is not about what is true or what isn't or why most scientists are onboard, we all know those, I am looking for points I could use when talking with the "sheep", and it occurred to me that comparing those numbers should work at least to some extent, if only by throwing even a little bit doubt in the mind of a blind believer.
Because you can never persuade anybody by just one, or a few, arguments, or just telling them. If you can do it at all you need to find questions that might make the other person think, and throw at least a little bit doubt in their mind, even if it is only in a subconscious level, then they might end up doing the work themselves (and will probably then think they also reached the conclusion all by themselves, but who cares).
Questions they can't answer usually supposedly work best.
So "why are there more scientists who have gone from advocates to "deniers" than there are ones who have gone from "deniers" to advocates after studying the matter themselves?" might be a good one, but I'd need to be able to confirm it first.
This is an old article, I know. There is a much more recent list of deniers, but I can't seem to locate it at the moment. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-ten-most-important-climate-change-skeptics-2009-7?op=1
Thanks.