Indeed. Even with an adjacent PhD and a decade of adjacent research experience, it took me years to learn the very basics of climate modeling. And there's no way I can keep up with the literature.

Also, I don't have access to a supercomputer (ok, well, I do, but I can't both keep my day job and also use it for re-running climate models when I have a question I want to ask myself about them).

People say "critical thinking" and "do your own research" a lot, and I always wonder what the fuck they think "research" means. Apparently not what I think it means! Or perhaps they do not need sleep, do not have to work for a living, do not have family, have access to huge teams of assistants, and own a world-class supercomputer to help satiate their skepticism, in which case, good for them :)

Personally, I just use my instincts. If my instincts are wrong, well, there's always another lifeform that will evolve someday, even if that's billions of years from now.

Hopefully they will be smarter than myself. If not, a few billion more years and we may get another shot...