It's not an appeal to authority. That would literally be, "I'm a climate scientist, trust me". What's actually happening is: "I'm a climate scientist, trust me, but if you don't, look at this ludicrous amount of data and research gathered/conducted over generations".
AFAIK appeal to authority is only a fallacy when the authority is an expert in an unrelated field. It is not an appeal to authority to reference the opinion of a well-established astrophysicist when discussing astrophysics.
No, it is always logical falacy in a literal sense. The existence or the appeal of any authority is not a logical argument. If you think the authority is justified by factual, logical arguments you're meant to cut out the middle man and simply present those facts and their logical argument.
It's worth saying that no one really expects you to live life or strictly act like this. Avoiding fallacies is really just about putting forth a concrete logical agument.
Retoric (and life) can be plenty productive without logical rigor and appeals to authority have meaning and value outside of 'logic'. Ethos, logos, pathos anyone?
