Even though I’m sure you read a plethora of blogs already I would suggest checking out No Impact Man. Even though his experiment is over the old posts are worth perusing and I think he makes great arguments on why global warming is something we should really be concerned about.

In answer to your questions, no and no, in reverse order. No, of course not ALL will be convinced about anything through rational discussion and/or science (‘We never landed on the moon’, young earth creationism, controlled demolition of WTC, Elvis lives, “They’ll still find the WMD in Iraq”, etc.). it’s a problem I’m not sure this or any other society will overcome. Let’s just try to keep them in a very tiny minority.

And no, scientists can’s present ALL the arguments and evidence–science/evidence accumulates slowly over time, each scientist (or more likely, group of scientists) contributes a little piece here and a little piece there. Then a big picture emerges. What needs to happen better is instruction at the elementary and high school level about the nature of science so that people can cope with thinking about the big picture of scientific evidence.

Darnit, this topic always riles me up!