Randy Olson, whose films I've reviewed now and then, is in a somewhat heated discussion here about how scientists need to be better, and less robotic, communicators so as to stop flubbing PR showdowns such as "Climategate." For my part, I think the global-warming-is-not-a-problem side is overplaying its hand badly in the wake of that overblown not-really-a-scandal, for example by calling global warming "thoroughly debunked" and a "Freudian displacement."
It's one thing to argue the problem's been overstated, or that proposed solutions would be ineffective or too expensive (there are some good arguments there); it's another to deny the warming is anthropogenic or even real. By going there, the skeptics/denialists are demonstrating that they don't know what they're talking about and/or don't care, and I think these shortfalls will become clear enough to the public, despite the PR ineptitude of many scientists.
