Concise sources of evidence making the case for climate change?

Question

My father is a climate denier, but one that's willing to hear out an argument. He thinks observed climate change is just a natural part of the earth's cycle and that the crisis has been manufactured to win votes.What are some accessible yet substantial sources that lay out the evidence for the core mechanisms of climate change? I know that more-specific time scales and effects are less certain, so I'm really just focused on the "climate change is caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases and is going to be a really big problem" side of things.

bulatb · Accepted Answer

This list of rebuttals to common objections was posted recently:
https://grist.org/series/skeptics/
Not exactly what you asked for, but maybe it can help.
For what it's worth, I strongly agree with everyone who's saying facts and figures aren't the answer. The only honest way to change somebody's mind is (1) have a thorough understanding of the issue at multiple levels; (2) listen to and hear their reasons and make them feel heard; (3) understand what's behind their belief; and (4) use all that to nudge them in the "right" direction (yours) in ways that don't conflict with what you found in (3). "Proving" people wrong with evidence is often not effective, especially on issues like this.
People are more interested in feeling right than being right. (This isn't good or bad, just Goodhart's law.) Try to help him be right without feeling wrong, whether that's with evidence or not.
In any case, good luck.

aazaa · Answer

All popular treatments I've found assume belief in anthropogenic climate change as given. So far I've found not one accessible source that lays out the evidence in a way that non-experts can follow. Something that uses scientific facts to build a case that ordinary people can follow like what we see in works like 1491, Sapiens, or Oxygen.
What I find inexcusable is climate activists who assume that people who are skeptical of the link between human activity and climate change are idiots. Those claiming the link have the burden of proof, and they've done a pitiful job of presenting the actual evidence.
Your dad is completely justified in his skepticism.
For example, New York was under a kilometer of ice a mere 20,000 years ago. Ditto with many other places in the world. The fact that we see glaciers in retreat and overall warming is entirely consistent with a warming trend that ended the Pleistocene Era and paved the way for civilization as we know it.
Those making extraordinary claims (humans are warming the planet) must provide extraordinary evidence. And that has never been done.

kleer001 · Answer

Willing to hear an argument and willing to be convinced by an argument are different things.Best to find the emotional state behind his beliefs. And that requires empathy and listening, lots of non-judgemental listening, and echoing and understanding.

polski-g · Answer

The evidence isn't the issue. People's minds aren't changed by facts. They're changed by emotion. If you want him to see the way you do, you need to see why he is motivated to think the way he does, and address it.