I’ve been interested in this topic for the past 6–7 years and have collected a few examples for your list:
D.R. Tucker — journalist — 2010 — http://www.frumforum.com/confessions-of-a-climate-change-convert/
Paul Douglas — meteorologist — Year? — https://www.mprnews.org/story/2012/04/02/douglas
Stu Ostro — meteorologist — 2005 — http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/06/one-meteorologistss-come-jesus-moment-climate-change/
Admiral David Titley — Navy meterologist /oceanographer— 2005–07 — https://climatecrocks.com/2011/09/06/admiral-titley-how-i-answer-climate-skeptics/
Bob Inglis — politician — 2004 and after? — http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/bob-inglis-climate-change-and-the-republican-party/
Lisa Lee — avg. American citizen — ~2010 — http://journalstar.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/local-view-understanding-and-accepting-climate-change-a-republican-perspective/article_5070e95e-53a5-5058-a67f-bcf086122132.html
Kasra Hassani — microbiologist — Year? — https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/11/01/I_Was_A_Climate_Change_Denier/
As in most things in life, I think there is a “skeptic/denier” continuum and different people are found at different spots on that continuum. And they move around on that continuum as they try to justify their beliefs (see Kasra Hassani’s post for a good example of this).
I’ve also been interested in the question: “What makes deniers/skeptics change their minds and accept that AGW is true?” From my examples I think you can see that there is one central requirement:
An open-minded look at the actual science. Step away from the partisan blogs and news channels and actually look at the science with a dispassionate eye. Read the IPCC reports, as D.R. Tucker did, and do so with humility, as Lisa Lee suggests. Climate science relies on a huge field of study from physics to chemistry to geology and biology. The basics of AGW theory are fairly simple but there are a lot of details which are very complicated. No single data point, or killer-argument is likely to sway an out-and-out denier about AGW. All we can hope to do, in blog posts and facebook conversations, is plant seeds which may grow if the listener actually takes time themselves to look more closely, and honestly, at the science.
