You are surely right that the knoweldge is growing. What I think remains quite challenging is to discern short- medium- and long-term circles, i.e. a temporary "down" not neccesarily is a full decline. And I think it is still not fully understood to which degree which effects on the climate are man-made and which come from natural processes.

But haven't the ice been receding since the last Ice Age, and with less ice reflecting light wouldn't that aid in accelerate the warming?

There is no question that the Earth's climate changes. It has been for a billion years or so. There is absolutely no evidence that man has anything to do with it - certainly not enough data to suggest that drastic measures must be taken. 1000 years ago, Nordic settlers were living on Greenland and growing crops, in a much warmer world on average than today. 400 years ago, Europe was in the middle of "Little Ice Age" What we're seeing today is normal variations - nothing more.

A "scientific consensus" should not be taken as a hard fact, particularly when it comes to scientists on a government payroll. It's, at best, the best guess we have thus far.