As a chemist (now retired after 40 years) I can assure you that there absolutely is such a thing as settled science. Germ theory is settled science. Molecular theory is settled science.
Now this acceptance is provisional. We are always open to revisions of the theory. The theory is a model and scientists need models that work. A slight modification to the model that makes it work better is always welcome. But if you want to claim that all, or a large portion, of the model is fundamentally incorrect, you don't just need evidence that it is wrong. You need a new model and evidence that your new model works better. And you are going to need a mountain of that evidence because we already have a mountain of evidence that the old one works very well. That is why it is accepted science.
The basic understanding of how CO2 increases the planet's temperature is now 120-150 years old. It was absolutely not accepted (nor rejected) that it actually could warm the planet for many decades because we didn't have the evidence to settle the issue. Then in the 1950s, improved spectroscopic instruments and increased ability to perform atmospheric research confirmed that it was possible, probable and theoretically certain that our CO2 emissions would warm the planet. In the last 60 years, we have spent a lot of research time investigating the issue from all angles including from satellites that could only have been dreamed of when AGW was first confirmed.
The theory explains a lot. It is a very powerful theory in the field of climate science. There is no alternative hypothesis that can explain what this one does. It is settled science..
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