Why must AGW-skeptics resort to attacking the messenger?

I've been noticing the contrarian-skeptical community becoming more intense with their rejection of climatological knowledge but, rather than focusing on the science, they are increasing their personal attacks on scientists and people who attempt teaching about the seriousness of our situation. 

It seems that the more Earth Observation evidence makes the situation patently clear, and the weaker AGW skeptic's scientific grounding becomes the more they ramp up their emotionalizing.  Dr. Ivar Giaever's speech before the Lindau group being an excellent recent example.

It's a pretty cowardly way out for folks who refuse to consider their own prejudices,
or to reconsider assumption and their own personal reasons for clinging to those assumptions.

To do some actual soul searching, to understand yourself why you're thinking as you are.  And to ask if that old attitude makes anymore sense.


There are no new climatological secrets that can overwhelm the known physics and observations. You can argue about the fine points of models, and observational data processing all you want, but it's bull-poop, if all you want to do is delay acting!  It makes as much sense as focusing on worrying about that knife coming at you: if it's 7 inches or 7.33 inches long - one has got to act.

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Here, within the reading of these two links any thinking person with intellectual integrity can learn enough to realize continuing willfully ignoring the evidence is no longer a reasonable option:

Watch the past 800,000 years unfold in this 3:15 minute video.  Just you and the graphic representation of the atmospheric GHG levels, stick it out, the last minute is worth the wait.

Time history of atmospheric carbon dioxide from 800,000 years ago until January, 2009.

 and

New NOAA-led report examines climate conditions experienced around the world

July 10, 2012

Highlights:

• Warm temperature trends continue: Four independent datasets show 2011 among the 15 warmest since records began in the late 19th century, with annually-averaged temperatures above the 1981–2010 average, but coolest on record since 2008. The Arctic continued to warm at about twice the rate compared with lower latitudes. On the opposite pole, the South Pole station recorded its all-time highest temperature of 9.9°F on December 25, breaking the previous record by more than 2 degrees.
  
  
• Greenhouse gases climb: Major greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, continued to rise. Carbon dioxide steadily increased in 2011 and the yearly global average exceeded 390 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since instrumental records began. This represents an increase of 2.10 ppm compared with the previous year. There is no evidence that natural emissions of methane in the Arctic have increased significantly during the last decade.
  
  
• Arctic sea ice extent decreases: Arctic sea ice extent was below average for all of 2011 and has been since June 2001, a span of 127 consecutive months through December 2011. Both the maximum ice extent (5.65 million square miles, March 7) and minimum extent (1.67 million square miles, September 9) were the second smallest of the satellite era.
  
  
• Ozone levels in Arctic drop: In the upper atmosphere, temperatures in the tropical stratosphere were higher than average while temperatures in the polar stratosphere were lower than average during the early 2011 winter months. This led to the lowest ozone concentrations in the lower Arctic stratosphere since records began in 1979 with more than 80 percent of the ozone between 11 and 12 miles altitude destroyed by late March, increasing UV radiation levels at the surface. 

• Sea surface temperature & ocean heat content rise: Even with La Niña conditions occurring during most of the year, the 2011 global sea surface temperature was among the 12 highest years on record. Ocean heat content, measured from the surface to 2,300 feet deep, continued to rise since records began in 1993 and was record high.
  
  
• Ocean salinity trends continue: Continuing a trend that began in 2004 and similar to 2010, oceans were saltier than average in areas of high evaporation, including the western and central tropical Pacific, and fresher than average in areas of high precipitation, including the eastern tropical South Pacific, suggesting that precipitation is increasing in already rainy areas and evaporation is intensifying in drier locations.

NOAA's State of the Climate in 2011 report was published today by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. For more, visit NOAA's State of the Climate 2011 webpage

Download here. (Credit: NOAA). 

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