Thanks for that interesting response, Thalweg. i hadn't thought about them in much such terms. I have often thought that it does provide an ersatz religion in a post-religious age, given that the religious urge is the same any other and cannot ultimately be repressed.
It has comparable attributes to recognized religions such as being part of something greater than oneself=God, good and evil( pre-industrial versus industrial societies, even Golden Age and Fall), sin= CO2, penance=Carbon Tax, Apocalypse= global warming, sceptics=heathen, the distain the "true believers" have for the "unenlightened masses" even suggesting that they are too stupid for democracy(Clive Hamilton). Then of course there is the priesthood, with the sacred texts that are not to be touched by the profane (CRU refusal of FOI requests"because they only want to find mistakes in it",Phil Jones), Al Gore, the Billy Graham of the AGW movement. As in most religions there is a core of true believers then a ring of opportunists with most people going with the flow as long as it doesn't uproot their lives too much. It even has apostates like James Lovelock who has jumped ship recently.
I sensed it was a religio/political/economic movement 25 years ago when I first noticed it(after the global cooling scare petered out)when it went straight to being a threat before any assessments of benefits versus costs were discussed. It was apparent then that it's usefulness was as a threat(for political/economic purposes) rather than any rational assessment of costs/benefits. By concentrating on this issue as an existential threat to humanity it avoids real threats in favour of fantasies.Real threats include asteroid strike and coronal mass ejections from the Sun which, in our interconnected electronic societies would put us back to the stone age in a month. These are ignored and in the case of rogue asteroids, they have only been looked for recently, almost as an afterthought. Perhaps the reason for this is that there isn't nearly as much scope for control which is what appeals to the true believer and is the real reason for them being true believers in the first place.
"Gotta understand the psychology, the warmist's in the majority see themselves as victims....there is a tiny scared little core person inside and it feels everything as a personal attack or slight or injustice....nothing but a feeling of around the possible ability of absolute control of all others can calm them." I would add to the victimhood a sense of superiority and a tendency to look down on the "victimizers" for their "ignorance". As for absolute control, that rings true and what better way to control(or at least have a feeling that it is at least under someones control) than to control carbon which means to control everything.
"Just arguing a simple point will be a slight against them personally and deeply........it's all they have is causes, it's a sad existence and necessary for all others at all times to prop their self worth up up..."
Which refers to the true believers here who are the most prolific and dedicated of all posters.
"analogous to the stereotypical sociopath just the projection will be different...the core rationalizing remains much the same between the two."
There are serious sociopathic traits in many true believers that enable them to call for the death(or for the more squeamish, the "reduction") in the majority of the world's population" for "sustainability". All for the cause, to fill the void within, and no price is too high.
