Hi, as someone yet to be convinced by either side of the debate, where do I go for answers? I agree a lot of "climate change" stuff is alarmist, but I also think there is a lot of propaganda from the reactionary fossil-fuel monopolies...
There is a lot of controversy to be sure.
I would avoid demonizing the petroleum industry in this. Koch brothers and their antics aside, major oil companies are full of very intelligent people with open minds. Oil companies serve customers. That would be you and me. They supply what we demand. We enjoy wonderful, rich lives thanks to the miracle of fossil fuels. And petroleum, it's distillates, and subsequent products truly do fall under that "near miracle" category. For all the billions we have spent searching, we have yet to find a substitute that is as energy dense, safe, clean and portable. All this creates virtually addictive demand for fossil fuels - particularly of the liquid variety.
And energy companies do spend a lot of money investigating alternatives to petroleum. If they had found a better substitute, they would sell it. There really isn't a conspiracy. You don't hear much about R&D other than press releases because so much of the work is protected as trade secrets. Companies and researchers also don't trumpet their failures. These alternative fuels projects start up to great fanfare, then usually fade away in silence. Unfortunately, that gives some the misguided impression that somehow a miracle is being suppressed due to a conspiracy. Mistakes have certainly been made. Wrong actions have most certainly been taken. Greed has played a starring role in some of these failures. But, there really is no conspiracy, nor active policy to suppress replacement fuels.
If we want something different, it is *we* who must change. When we do, smart oil companies will follow.