In the first place there are two questions here. One, are we experiencing global warming or are we experiencing global cooling, and two, is mankind's activities contributing to global warming or are our activities contributing to global cooling. All the discussions I read seem to mix these two fundamental questions together and reach one conclusion that are then applied to both when in fact they are two separate issues.

I'm not a climate expert and I am not going to list all of the articles I have read, but I will give a layman's opinion (Why? Because it's my God given right to have an opinion, that's why!).

The study I have read that had the best reasonable examination (in my opinion) as to whether we are experiencing global warming or not explained that the Earth has three short term (short as in geological time) climate cycles, dependent on the orbital conditions (~41,000 year long axis wobble, a ~23,000 year long tilt cycle, and a ~100,000 year long cycle related to how much the orbit the Earth follows is elliptical verses a circle. There is a strong correlation to the average temperature the Earth has experienced in the last million years or so related to the various combinations of these three variables. And, we are definitely on the upswing side of average temperate right now based on these cycles. I don't think this is in question in most climate studies.

What is in question is just how much does mankind's addition of greenhouse gasses boost the degree of warming we are experiencing? The truth is, NO ONE can say for sure how much. But I don't think that anyone can honestly believe that we're DECREASING the effect. This is my belief: While it is unclear whether our addition of CO2 is making a measurable impact on the net temperate increase, it's not reducing the increase. So in my mind, anything we can do to reduce the CO2 we put into the air is a good thing.

On the other hand, I also think that we will find out we are going to have to do more than simply be carbon neutral in order to attain the ideal average temperature across the globe. That's of course assuming we really can impact the whole Earth. That still remains to be proven.