Vaclav Smil told me personally on a conference in Switzerland, Zürich (he was presenting at the european food service summit), that he does not believe in climate change. That's it for me.
Wow, interesting to hear. I still like some of thoughts he and others have inquiring about net EROEI of renewable energy, but distanced myself from his seeming reductionism around human energy use and blind spots around the social niches leading him in other talks to evangelize cities.
I still recommend reading Energy and Civilization: A History if you were planning to before. It's still good historical perspective. I say that as somebody who believes that AGW is a serious problem that we aren't yet doing enough to curb.