The problem with laypeople trying to discuss climate change is that most of us aren't scientists. But the good news is, we don't need to be. 

There's a reason we trust experts. It's because people who devote their lives to studying an issue know more than those who don't. So when the overwhelming majority of the world's climatologists say that climate change is real, that it's due largely to human activity and that we should be concerned about it, I believe them.

I posted this last week but it bears repeating. Those who deny the influence of  human activity on climate change are using a tactic once employed by the tobacco industry. If you can find a handful of "experts" willing to disagree with the scientific consensus, you can claim the evidence is inconclusive even when it isn't. Don't be taken in by that.

Just ask yourself this: Who is saying what and why? That will tell you all you need to know about the motivations of those who profit from obfuscating this issue.