Climate of Debate

I was disappointed with Today's discussion about Dennis Avery's book Unstoppable Global Warming. The central tenant of the book is that global warming is not due to human action but part of a natural environmental cycle of the earth - basically we can't do anything about it and should just prepare for it. What was unsatisfying about the discussion was the environmentalist wouldn't discuss the science. While it may be relevant to bring up Mr Avery's funding once the rest of his argument was basically an ad hominem attack. Avery claimed at least a hundred of his cited sources where peer reviewed papers in science journals. The other guy basically accused him of lying. It was a poor debate; either he should of pulled in up on some of these "fake" citations or discussed alternative interpretations of the evidence (for example does the pattern of past warming match the current trends?). Without engaging in the science it makes the Global Warming lobby look like arrogant bullies who are above arguing with people not part of the consensus. That is never good science.