It looks to me that you have several errors in play here. Bias, of course, and fallacies. Since this is a fallacy forum, I’ll examine one fallacy of several.
The first step is to ask yourself what is a person citing the “popular 97% consensus” really trying to do. The answer I’ve encountered is to coerce you into changing your mind.
The Fallacy of the Argument from Intimidation appeals to moral self-doubt and reliance on the victim’s fear, guilt, or ignorance. It is used as an ultimatum demanding that the victim renounce a given idea without discussion, personally attacking by threatening the victim of being considered morally unworthy, uneducated, or just plain stupid. An ad hominem attack. In my experience, the pattern: “Only those who are evil (dishonest, heartless, insensitive, ignorant, etc.) can hold such an idea.” Or, “Everyone knows that ...”
Before trusting an expert, one must determine whether the expert’s claims are valid. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of bias or conflict of interest.
Two scientists with good credentials commonly examine the same facts and come to different conclusions. John Clauser, the 2022 Nobel Prize-winning physicist, told the audience at Quantum Korea 2023, “I believe that climate change is not a crisis.” He described the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as “one of the worst sources of dangerous misinformation.”
The physicist says the amount of CO2 is not important and “we are totally awash in pseudoscience. He was scheduled to speak at the IMF on July 23, 2023, but the IMF canceled his talk due to his stance on carbon emissions.
So how do you know which one is right? You have to test the testimony. Otherwise, all you have is a one-sided monologue.
We cannot have a rule by experts, as all too many examples provide. There was a time, for example, when “all” the respected scientists believed the world was flat and the sun revolved around the earth. You would be imprisoned or killed to suggest otherwise.
But there is an issue beyond the experts. Even if an expert is correct in what the expert claims within his field of expertise, it can lead to tragedy. This is because each specialized group sees an ever-shrinking piece of the more giant puzzle of life and focuses on what are minutiae when analyzing the situation as a whole., i.e., the Big Picture. What is a reasonable course of action within their narrow field of expertise is not reasonable when viewed as a part of the Big Picture.
The world learned this, for example, during the Covid pandemic. Virologists were concerned only with the virus and not the more significant effects on human life. As a result, the cure became worse than the disease.
You do not need to be an expert in the field under discussion. But you do need to examine the evidence and the process upon which the experts claim to base their conclusion (opinion). The evidence that scientists bring to the table is critically important — not their conclusions — otherwise, you have abnegated your mind to theirs.