He’s got the whoooole woorld in his hands…
This troubling news from the Guardian, UK
“James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.
Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken immediately if the “perfect storm” of irreversible climate change is not to become inevitable.
Speaking before Congress again, he will accuse the chief executive officers of companies such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of being fully aware of the disinformation about climate change they are spreading.”
I suspect he’ll be calling for the jailing of bloggers like myself next. I think Mr. Hansen has lost all sense of reason, and his last shred of credibility.
UPDATE: Apparently Mr. Hansen has made the claims above on live radio on the Dian Rehm show this morning, audio files of the interview will be up shortly here:
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/08/06/23.php#20635
When the audio file is up, I’ll post a direct link.
AUDIO CLIPS NOW AVAILABLE:
Listen to this segment
Joe D’Aleo created this graph this morning:
click for a larger image.
Satellite measured global temperature trend from the University of Alabama, Huntsville show sthat it is cooler now than when he made his testimony in 1988.
UPDATE2: See the reader poll on this issue here
The scary thing is ~ he will be seriously listened to.
I sincerely hope that he and all his cohorts sue or even file criminal charges against the individuals he is accusing. Trials require facts, not modeled guesses. He has lost his mind.
So, let me get this straight…
An employee of the US government is calling for prosecutions based on the content of speech by private individuals.
I thought all government employees had a legal obligation to uphold the Constitution.
That earns at least one call to NASA
Indeed.
He does remind me of the inquisition persecuting Galileo for daring to suggest that the earth revolves around the sun.
Not strictly because of lack of evidence for either side, but more for his views of suitable punishment for those that hold a disenting view.
Bring on the cold! Right now the lunatics seem far more dangerous.
Why is someone like this anywhere near a science operation? It is quite obvious he has an agenda that he is more interested in furthering than he is interested in doing any real climate science. It really is sad and frustrating to be wasting the taxpayers’ money on a position that could be filled by someone who might do some real groundbreaking science with all those resources at their disposal.
If any oil company executive can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to deliberately promote misleading information on climate change they should be jailed. This might be a rather hard thing to prove.
If any green activist can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to deliberately promote misleading information to support increased fuel taxes they should also be jailed.
He’s gonna be really unhappy when Steve Mcintyre gets finished demolishing his code..
.
How does anybody get this full of themselves?
Grand Inquisitor Hansen & The Great Goreacle™ had better get to a prison tailor to be fitted for their orange jumpsuits, PDQ. Their falsified, er, “adjusted” data is enough to put them in chains for several Solar Cycles. ;-)
Mark Andrew, I disagree.
Free Speech is a fundamental part of our freedom.
At most, Hansen should be relieved of his position for breaching his constitutional duties.
Let’s first listen what he has to say, before making any preliminary judgements.
It’s about the facts and not about assumptions. Let’s not make the same mistakes he probably makes.
Listen to what he has to say, check and analyse the facts and only than judge his credibility.
[...] Grand Inquisitor Hansen is reportedly going to be calling for the jailing of the executives of Big O… “James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer. [...]
While an employee does not take the oath to preserve and protect the Constitution, the politicians who hire and can also fire directors of government research institutes certain;y do.
Hansen and the other Gore environmental appointees from the 1990’s should have been fired in January 2001. What was Bush thinking?
The Al Gore, AGW crowd has become the equvalent of late 1700’s England crowd. Taxation without “Justifcation”.
Our Liberial enforced (Dumb down education system) has put the fate of this Country in the hands of a bunch of totally “Uninformed/Misinformed” voters.
“Minutemen” unite, and save this Great Country from the Liberial “Socialistic” forces within, that are now bent on destroying this great Country.
God/Science Save Us all!!!
“Give Me Liberty of Give me Death. Our Freedom of Speech and Socialistic Education system has Failed Us.
He’s finally gone ’round the twist. (Or maybe this is just the outward exponent of it.)
‘Specially after the Suzuki disgrace. Even Gore (somehow) manages not to sail quite off the edge of his flat earth.
D’you think maybe he’s embroiled in internal GISS office politics, considering NASA went and spilled the beans by admitting that the PDO had flipped and GW was on sabbatical? Just had to lash out?
The poor dear. We mustn’t scoff too loud; it isn’t kind to poke fun at the disabled.
I sincerely hope that he and all his cohorts sue or even file criminal charges against the individuals he is accusing.
I’m not a praying man, but for this I will make an exception.
A crime against humanity would be to lose our oil supply for a month. Hundreds of millions would starve and billions would die in wars. Society would collapse.
CO2 is simply the latest mechanism to seize power and subjugate the masses. If it weren’t for Hansen, no one would even think or talk about CO2. It has no impact on our lives.
Van Druten, what the hell are you talking about, “…let’s listen to what he has to say, let’s wait and see, blah blah..”, we have 10 years of him making false statements. he’s been spouting lies about a fictional global warming that doesn’t exist. This is no time to be mealy-mouthed about it. He’s also in violation of NASA policy in regard to getting involved in reccomending one policy over another, he’s a civil servant, who isn’t obeying his superiors, he should be cashiered immediately. This is nothing less than an attempt to institute a Macchiavellian behavior modification from above. This guy is a dangerous fanatic and he will be addressing Congress tomorrow; I worked on Capitol Hill as a Congressional intern and I can tell you their ignorance of much of what they sign and support, in the aggregate is astonishing. I have little hope that anyone will put this bozo in his place. But, I do wonder who will challenge this delusional idiot by suing him for libel or at least call his sanity into question.
The link to a Reuters article on sea temperatures published in Nature shows how scientific these guys are. If the data doesn’t fit the model, change the data! Where is peer review when you need it?
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN946269.html
I’m an Australian too I’m ashamed to say
Greg Smith
I had heard that Dr. Hansen received a grant and legal support from a liberal foundation to establish and promote a scientific basis for global warming. Does anyone know if this is true and, if true, did it occur prior to his original speech to Congress?
Has Dr. Hansen offered up an explanation for the sudden reversion to the mean of temps since early 2007? He still comments about how the (early 2007) anomaly was remarkable, though he makes it sound as if it were true for the entire year which, as we all know, was not the case.
Suzuki made a similar foolish statement about jailing political leaders who didn’t believe in Anthropogenic climate change in February I believe. On the other hand, there was a recent poll in the English Observer that suggested around two thirds of the population did not beileve in the man made Climate change postulation.
No, I think Hansen is quite right, although he doesn’t go nearly far enough.
I think offenders, rather than being jailed, should be “fired”, in a literal sense.
To give offenders a fair trial before being found guilty they could be investigated by an independent body run by the UN, called lets say, the “Inquisitional Panel on Climate Change”. This could be made up of well respected, independent, individuals who could be relied on to come to the correct decision, such as Hansen, Gore, and that guy who writes that blog. “Hansen’s Poodle”, I think his name is.
I encourage all to read the complete story. Hansen attacks democracy for not working. Really? Did you ever think that maybe you are on the losing end of a failed proposition and that democracy IS working? Get a life, loser. Gore and Hansen have more that one thing in common - they’re both snippy.
Hansen fiddles while the world temperature dives beneath the 1979-1998 average (see WUWT resource page).
Other people: We don’t fully believe James Hansen’s view of global warming.
James Hansen: I am a scientist! I welcome all points of view! Now put these doubters on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature!
That’s not science. It’s blind hatred and activism. It’s embarrassing to America and to any science in general. The man needs to be fired.
This is a classic example of psychological projection.
In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions to others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
Is he raising his own profile because Al Gore got all the kudos?
I think that Hansen quite know that he’s loosing the agw argument now , so he’s going for desperate mesures…
But in my opinion the one to blame was Gore, trying to “close the deal” a little earlier than suppose with is famous “science settle” argument…!
K.
Could this not be good news though?
When AIT went before the courts in the UK, it was ripped to shreds.
If Hansen resorts to the law courts, he and his theories will also be exposed for what they are. He’s treading on thin ice here, you might say.
You know Hansen was the fellow who claimed censorship in 2006 by NASA officials who wanted to review his statements before he went out there and made them.
Well, I guess someone at NASA has decided the right course of action is to hand him all the rope he can use to hang himself–cause the guy is clearly a nutbar.
I think Mr Hansen should be encouraged to take any and all skeptics to court - It’s the one place where he and his theories will be held to ultimate factual test, stripped of influence from a hysterical green movement and an apologist media which ceased to be anything more than advocacy some time ago.
If he doesn’t hold good on this threat then perhaps he and Mr Gore should be taken to court for fraud. It seems to me that Mr Hansen’s fanatical rantings left the arena of scientific veracity a long time ago.
In the meantime Giss measurements move ever further into the realms of fantasy……..
“…democracy is not working the way it’s intended to work”.
Heard that one before; “1984″ anyone?
The jailing of oil company executives is to be followed by the public burning of skeptic books and all skeptics will have to wear an identifying insignia! Where have we seen this before?
I don’t say this lightly but there have been lots of statements by James Hansen in the past two years that are the products of a mentally unstable mind. The man even has the gall to criticise fossil fuel producers while daily making an 85+ mile one way commute.
He reminds me rather strongly of the behavior of Trofim Lysenko given from contemporaneous reports.
If the US Congress goes Democratic in the next couple of years, then I guarantee that they will get rapidly tired of James Hansen and his retirement will be assured.
“It’s about the facts and not about assumptions. Let’s not make the same mistakes he probably makes.”
I’m with Timo.
David Gladstone,
Don’t misunderstand me; I am probably of the same opinion as you. But I first like to hear what he will say, before jumping to conclusions. You have to be prudent and consistent; let’s first have the facts straight (let´s hear what he has to say) and hold our breath for another day.
Let´s also keep in mind that this article is phony or misleading.
Is there no way he can be retired due to old age? Or suffering from delusion grandeur? Or dementia? The trouble is that, like all dictators, he’s afraid that once he’s gone and the keys to the cupboard are passed on, his minions may not be scared to reveal the truth anymore and all the skeletons may be revealed. He doesn’t morph into Robert Mugabe at night, does he?
Is there any opposition at all to Hansen’s views within NASA?
This fits very well with my forthcoming book called “The Climate Trial: in defense of humanity.” It is only available in Norwegian at the moment, but hopefully it will be out in America this year.
He needs to put the white coat on, not the one scienctists wear, that other jacket.
Seriously, is there no way to get him out of NASA? He’s really destroying their reputation.
Amazing thread.
90%+ of replies condemn ‘Hansen’ yet…he hasn’t even said what he’s supposed to have ’said’ yet.
If anyone disagrees with him, Hansen will burst into tears, suck his thumb, and claim he is a martyr.
However what is a martyr? From Wikipedia: ” The term martyr (Greek μάρτυς martys “witness”) initially signified a witness in the forensic sense, a person called to bear witness in legal proceedings…” and, “In the context of church history, from the time of the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire, being a martyr indicates a person who is killed for maintaining his or her religious belief…”
Hansen has been given every oportunity to testify. He has been given huge amounts of money to find corroberating evidence to back up his claims. Everyone has bent over backwards to be fair.
What he really wants to do is to deny others the right to question his claims. Therefore he in truth wants to make martyrs of everyone who questions his testimony and offers differing testimony.
This makes him more dangerous than a sulking child. He is like a person who bursts into tears, sucks his thumb, and then pulls out a gun.
Contact your congressman and ask for his removal.
The Guardian is a co-conspirator in the AGW scam - it doesn’t matter what you say to them, they will not listen. The New Scientist is as bad - worse - they should know better. And talking of prosecuting CEOs - what about Gore, Hansen’s guru. Did he say something about false information going into school text books?
Greg Smith put it as “If the data doesn’t fit the model, change the data!”, but I felt I should check.
The article says :
” Fellow report author John Church said he had long been suspicious about the historical data because it did not match results from computer models of the world’s climate and oceans.
“We’ve realigned the observations and as a result the models agree with the observations much better than previously,” said Church, a senior research scientist with the climate centre.
“And so by comparing many XBT observations with research ship observations in a statistical way, you can estimate what the errors associated with the XBTs are.”
There it is, in black and white, clear as day, in your face, bold as brass - the data has been adjusted to match the models.
How do these people get away with it???
I’m Australian too, so please don’t blame Australia for this!! (NB. Al Gore and James Hansen aren’t Australian…..)
Re the paper http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN946269.html it isn’t as bad as it sounds.
Looking at the review of it over on Real Climate http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/06/ocean-heat-content-revisions/ the new graph actually removes an anomaly in the 1970/90 period and now shows a slightly slower rate of increase from 1985 onwards
What is it about this AGW (American Global Warming) crowd that drives them to the brink of insanity? It’s not just this guy, we have Al Gore, most of Congress and, sadly, BOTH of our Presidential candidates foaming at the mouth. Some compare them to religious fanatics. I, for one, am terrified of their ilk.
“I suspect he’ll be calling for the jailing of bloggers like myself next.”
When Obama is elected and Gore becomes Climate Czar, don’t be surprised if men in black pop into your home late one night. These guys are far more dangerous then you hope. AIT shows to what extent they are willing to go.
Be prepared to recant everyting you’ve posted here.
In general Hansen is calling anyone with a different opinion a criminal. I think the oil execs ought to go after him for libel.
In German we’d say this guy has got Dachschaden, i.e a leaky roof.
He’s definitely a few cans short of a 6-pack.
Mister Jones
points squarely to what has sparked Hansen’s newest outburst.
Despite the years of headlines, glossy photos of the upcoming Armegeddon, broad scientific “consensus”, climate change summits and “scientific” reports, a majority of Britons still doubt AGW. The campaign has failed.
Us deniers are getting under his skin and now, seeing he’s losing the battle, he thinks he can get his way by throwing a tantrum, and threatening to get his big brother to make us shut up if we don’t stop it.
It’s indeed high time to turn up the global heat on this pathetic charade.
I hope the other websites and conservative, American media outlets will join Anthony in exposing this childish tantrum.
Between this and the earth quakes caused by global warming I think it is fair to say that global warming has officially jumped the shark.
LOL!
How much closer are we to Hansen’s climate Armegeddon since his famous 1988 spreech?
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3vgl/from:1988
I rest my case. Thank you.
Joe McCarthy’s critical flaw was he didn’t know when to shut up. Hansen is following the same pattern.
HILARIOUS!
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/gistemp/from:1988
Global GISS temperature anomaly in 1988: + 0.50°C
Global GISS temperature anomaly in 2008: + 0.35°C
0.15°C COOLER today !!
Hansen’s own graph shows it’s cooler today then when he made his idiot speech in 88!!!!
Can anyone possibly find a way to make an ass and laughing stock of oneself any faster and more effectively than that?
LOL!
He’s contradicted by his own bleeping data!!!!
Hansen has staked his entire legacy on AGW. He senses he is about to be ground under by the his own models not performing as advertised. This could be his last attempt to save himself for the history books. Unfortunately, as stated previously, the dumbest folks in the crowd are the ones who have been elected to govern us.
“A little rebellion now and then…is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, 1787″
Do I smell tea in the harbor?
[...] settled in this area, and there are no other possible explanations for recent warming. It may even lead to convictions! At least then it would go before people who separate evidence from assertion and [...]
Sounds like Hitler in the bunker. He calls for the destruction of his enemies, while he commits professional suicide.
A Scientist??? HAHAHA
The quoted text says “will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial….” Had he said he would file suit, then the pretrial discovery process would force him to open up all his data and procedures behind his claims.
Assuming the government doesn’t file charges (congress is more inclined to make new laws), then perhaps 350.org or Gore’s group would. That would make it somewhat more difficult to gain access, especially if Hansen doesn’t testify.
Of course, scientific policy and the Freedom of Information Act should make all this moot.
I think I can find a little time to send notes to my congresscritters this morning.
James Hansen is a federal employee subject to the Hatch Act, which prohibits people from political activities while in a duty status, i.e., when working or in a capacity that indicates he is representing the government. If he made this speech in that capacity (where he talks about going after specific politicians during this election cycle) , then I don’t see how he could possibly not be in violation of that Act.
I’m a federal employee and the Hatch Act is taken VERY seriously, especially in Presidential Election years. It is one of the few things that can cause you to lose your job. If I were to have made a similar speech I would no doubt be standing in front of my General Counsel trying to explain why I shouldn’t lose my job, but Hansen (”Look, Look, I’m being repressed”) is apparently special.
The transition from pocket protector geek to C02 superstar appears to have inflated his ego a bit (ok, more than a bit)
This has all the marks of nothing more than a publicity stunt, but one which it seems that he’s daring the current administration to fire him. IANAL, so I have to ask, under what statute could oil execs be tried for “crimes against humanity and nature?” I wonder if he isn’t hoping to be fired so that Obama can use that as an election issue, and imagine that he’ll be given a position of even greater glory and honor in an Obama administration? If I were a member of Congress and had this jackass spouting this stuff under oath, in a hearing before a committee I belonged to, I’d ask him what I just asked, about under what statute he imagines this could be done, so as to reveal it as nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Oh - another thing for anyone considering writing a politician. Consider sending http://wermenh.com/climate/science.html as background material. I designed it to be as neutral as I could and simple enough to just concentrate on key hypotheses that friends, journalists, teachers, and politicians can understand. (And also a few scientists who’ve forgotten what scientific method is and why it’s important.)
It’s not the sort of page that people who need to read it will stumble across, so I appreciate any help in passing it out.
Unfortunately, this is only Hansen’s most recent outrageous statement. His most repulsive statement (in my opinion) was made last year in testemony to the Iowa Utilities Board (in opposition, of course, to the construction of a new coal-fired power plant):
“… If we cannot stop the building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains will be death trains – no less gruesome than if they were boxcars headed to crematoria, loaded with uncountable irreplaceable species …”
To even make a suggestion that the supposed loss of animal species due to global warming was equivalent to the holocaust was beyond the pale for me. I lost ** all ** respect for him after that…
Frank
I suspect a lot of this is posturing (see SLAPP suits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation), but large portions probably lie in the psychological projection and hubris categories. Should it go that far, the defense will have an opportunity to subpoena lots of so-far hidden things such as the GISTEMP code and special agreements that let a public employee perhaps illegally and certainly unethically do political work on the job. “Pride goes before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction.” We may be seeing a re-enactment of a Greek tragedy here.
James Hansen is the one guilty of spreading lies, and should be brought up on crimes against humanity, and on being a traitor. Let the Grand Inquisitor himself be stripped of his job and put in jail.
A couple of comments on the legal and policy status of US government employees:
All US government employees take the oath of office which includes “protecting and defending the constitution of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic.”
In earlier years US government employees were deemed to be acting as “agents of the government” and we immune from law suits in their private capacity. Changes in the last ten years have removed that “sovereign authority” defense and any US government employee can now be sued in their private capacity. Hence why I had to privately obtain at my own expense suitable insurance for myself when I was a senior government official. That personal liability possibility certainly weighed upon my mind when I was making decisions regarding public policy that could result in litigation against me.
Finally, I am astonished that the NASA permits him, as their employee, to make all of these statements to the public since he by doing so he is effectively making policy and potentially committing the US government to courses of action. That is why you are generally enjoined from making any statements to the public without submitting them to legal counsel and approval through the public affairs office. I think any reasonable defense attorney could clearly prove that Hansen was “communicating a threat” and “attempting to influence private behavior through the color of the office.” Those are both extremely serious charges and very difficult to defend yourself against when you have made public comments to that effect.
Lastly, the most serious legal jeporady that he is setting himself up for is for violation of the law known as the “Anti-deficiency Act.” That is essentially where a government employee has committed the government to a policy that requires the expenditure of money for which no legal appropriation or obligation has been approved. For instance, you tell a company or an individual to do something that requires them to spend money and when they attempt to bill the government for the cost they find out that the government employee who ordered/asked them to do that didn’t have authority to do so. That means the government employee could be required by a court to personally pay for their expenditures made in good faith. It is likely that several billion dollars in remediation expenditures that he would have to personally reimburse would certainly get his attention.
Very interesting actions on his part. If he were an employee in my department we would be having some very serious discussions with him in my office with my legal advisor present and an attorney at the Justice Department standing by to file charges against him.
Cheers
Hansen’s latest estimate for the climate sensitivity to CO2 of 6 degrees celsius is as far from the IPCC consensus of 3 degrees as the view that the sensitivity is zero. Yet he wants criminal charges against those holding the latter view.
I doubt that he appreciates the irony.
Here’s a link to Hansen’s infamous 1988 paper which he used to back-up his Congressional testimony and the only real paper from the global warming world which makes any kind of temperature prediction that can be tested.
The graph on page 9347 (it is a short paper not 9,000 pages long) shows the three Scenarios and the resulting temperature predictions. GHG Forcings ended up between Scenario B and C but the actual temps are well below his model predictions. Add in the latest drop in temps over the past year and he is way off.
http://runningpast.com/images/hansen_1988_chart.gif
http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/1988/1988_Hansen_etal.pdf
It is frightening that Hansen has still has any credibility. He still hasn’t explained how his “hockeystick” fails to show the Medieval Warm Period.
Whilst I feel that politics and science should be kept separate, it is worrying that false propoganda about AGW may cause our Governments to divert resources into meaningless costly policies at the expense of proper use of our taxes. The worst hit will of course be the poor. Already we see signs that biofuels induce inreases in the cost of basic foods.
The problem is that he has invested his whole life in global warming. He sees the cooling that is going on and believes it is temporary. Any belief otherwise would repudiate his whole life. As more and more people doubt the “true religion”, the more desperate he becomes.
The fact that he controls both the models and the measurements that validate the models makes him suspect. So does the fact that he founded the whole religion. He is a loose cannon at NASA, apparently subject to no control whatsoever. He should have been fired long ago.
This guy Hansen does seem to have gone a bit off the deep end, but, given enough rope, such people will hang themselves eventually. Nutty bureaucrats like Hansen are unfortunately inevitable.
Of course, the knee-jerk Gore bashers are ALSO distracted from the real issues - overuse of energy combined with rampant population growth.
Interesting note on projection bias, though. George W. and the Republicans have been the most excellent models of projection bias. I guess Hansen has learned from his superiors.
I do wonder who benefits from all this misdirection around climate change. If you follow the money, it’s those who make money from oil, followed by coal, etc. (A rise in cost of one commodity also pulls up the substitutes.)
Good luck to us all. We do need to keep level heads and stick to the science. I applaud Anthony for that.
(www.timprosserfuturing.wordpress.com)
I’m wondering about Mr. Hansen’s finances now myself. I’m wondering who is paying him to falsify the data and demand the immediate arrest of oil company execs?
Ah, show trials to distract the public.
He knows, you know; this is his last desparate attempt; the game is up.
Timo, this man has no credibility. Unfortuantely, he still has an audience.
Does anyone have a link to the transcript?
For someone being censored, he sure does make a lot of noise.
The guy’s nuts.
I’ve slogged through Gisstemp fortran. That code is crime against humanity.
REPLY: Ditto that - it’s like a silly string sculpture, Anthony
I’ve seen references to a report from September 2007 that Soros, through the OSI, gave Hansen $720,000. Can anyone provide a reference to the actual report. It appeared in IBD and LGF.
Hansen is like a cult leader that has predicted the end of the world by a certain date. If the date passes and nothing happens he has a real problem. With the flat temps he has to do something to distract the masses from the fact that the world is still here in spite of his prediction.
Bring it on. In court the facts will be brought out. But I suspect Hansen will never do this. He knows he won’t win. Its just a publicity stunt to get the warmers fired up.
Joe Black
Tell that to the makers of Vioxx. Merck is winning appeals but no longer markets Vioxx. Or tell it to anyone who has had the misfortune of going to trial in Madison County. It’s bad enough the issue might be taken to the polls for settlement. The last thing anyone should want is to subject it to vagaries of the trial process — and that includes Hansen. I assume this is hyperbolic rhetoric from Hansen.
Perhaps he should have. Unfortunately, the tide is going the other way today and Hansen might actually get his day in court.
It’s tragic to watch Science do to itself in just a few years what even the Church couldn’t accomplish in 500 years.
Anthony,
THIS MAY BE A DUPLICATE. WHEN I POSTED IT THE FIRST TIME IT SEEMED TO VANISH
Joe Black
Tell that to the makers of Vioxx. Merck is winning appeals but no longer markets Vioxx. Or tell it to anyone who has had the misfortune of going to trial in Madison County. It’s bad enough the issue might be taken to the polls for settlement. The last thing anyone should want is to subject it to vagaries of the trial process — and that includes Hansen. I assume this is hyperbolic rhetoric from Hansen.
Perhaps he should have. Unfortunately, the tide is going the other way today and Hansen might actually get his day in court.
Hansen’s both a gov’t employee and a researcher @ Columbia Univ. under the aegis of the Goddard Inst. He’s been pushing political activism w/in his clique of Columbia acolytes there for years, calling for anti-coal litmuses for political candidates, etc.
There seems to be a viral “Gaia Syndrome” within the ranks of the AGWers. It reminds me of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s wild rantings about the skeptics being guilty of treason. Are these statements real, or are they just more agitprop to galvanize the susceptible? It seems so weird!
And what’s peculiar about such angry statements is that the energy companies’ endorsement of directly “skeptic” organizations has largely abated, so what would this be all about? This goes so far over the top, it’s like we’re watching a zealot’s messianic throwing down of the gauntlet, daring the Bush Admin. to embark on a martyring purge of the dissidents.
After the Keenlyside bombshell I would’ve thought that the AGWers would’ve seen a less bleak scenario in the offing, but instead it appears that the pious feel even more threatened by the skeptics.
Such fighting words lead to even more acrimony between the belligerents, not less. Even were I to take their “masking” arguments at face value with global aerosols and solar dimming making for -0.18 degr/decade, there’s no reason for such outrageous talk and this will only galvanize the skeptic opposition against the AGWers even more.
What about Pielke, Spencer, Singer, Carter, Christy, Lindzen, Patterson and many other fine researchers who’ve had the temerity to ask for better evidence, citing problems in the AGW liturgy? Lindzen makes the salient point that if we toss out the ‘98 el Nino outlier the temperature trend is flat back to 1997. Why shouldn’t anyone have reservations before we underwrite a low-carbon crash program then? Climate rationalists and moderates will see this as an attempt to impugn them as well.
No, this isn’t fluff, this is dangerous stuff in that it’s an obvious attempt to intimidate researchers in the field. Somehow I don’t think the skeptics will back down but will lash back like angry bees. This is why science needs to stay apolitical and Hansen risks ruining the Earth Sciences by further politicizing them.
Well, let’s see what he really says, but I don’t expect anything different from Hansen than what’s reported in the Guardian.
Not only is Hansen a climate scientist, apparently in his spare-time he has gained an expertise in electric power grid expansion. Hansen is also going to tell Congress just how they should built the new grid!
“He wants to see a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants, coupled with the creation of a huge grid of low-loss electric power lines buried under ground and spread across America, in order to give wind and solar power a chance of competing”
Wow, this guy brain must be huge.
Firstly, forget climate about for a second. With that shell wrapped around energy policy removed, its plain to see that a revolution has already been undertaken without making climate the focal point. Most of industry is compelled to revolutionize how energy is obtained, delivered and consumed, for the simply reason energy independence and security must be increased well beyond today’s standards. Throw in the simple moral reasoning tied to long-term economical reasons for the consumer, adds to the push, with the green no-carbon argument notwithstanding.
I agree with John Coleman on this. A real, good court case is what AGW alarmism needs. Once brought to court, with BOTH sides showing their data for the debate, it will be obvious how much of the alarmist agenda just comes from anecdotal evidence and the like.
The hoaxers are on the run. Hate it when that happens, the rhetoric always gets shrill, the accusations harsh. But maybe we should put the hoaxers in jail?
We should look into Hansen’s funding — Who is behind the global warming hoax, “pay more in taxes and government will pretend to control the weather” — And specifically who benefits. Government scientists are on the verge of becoming the most un-trusted group there is, behind the US Congress. Government scientists have certainly gone from honest broker of fact, to the first suspect in faking the facts, it only takes one before all are suspect.
I see this current Environmental Marxism push coming crashing down. It’s been 20 years since Hansen first started the global warming hysteria, the world is still here, clucking along. I wonder, is peak warm really defined as the levels achieved in the Interglacial periods and the rest just degrees of cold? It would seem so, and breaking that pattern is not going to be easy, even for mankind.
I’m tired of this analogy with the tobacco industry. It’s completely different. The tobacco industry was not found guilty of “spreading doubt”. That is not a crime, it’s free speech. They were found guilty of hiding scientific results showing how nasty their product was. But in any case, it was clear enough to anyone with a brain that smoking was not good for your health. And it was everybody’s choice to quit smoking or not, and involved only their own health. If you keep smoking because you believe the tobacco companies, you’re a fool, but the world is full of them. Not much we can do about that.
Now, the oil industry isn’t hiding anything. As far as I know, they don’t control the temperature records. They don’t hold a patent on the use of principal components in statistical analysis. And, I’ll ask: who is hiding something? Who is twisting the data? Who is publishing flawed studies?
Who should be sued?
The fanaticism of these single agenda people is truly scary. The science isn’t settled, not even close, but they want to take actions that could hurl human civilization off the cliff in pursuit of their goals.
We are already seeing evidence of the effects of their type of thinking with the problems resultant from the conversion of food to fuel. We need to stop that immediately and use all available means to increase our energy supply, we also need to start building powerplants, both Nuclear and Fossil fueled.
There will be casualties if we do not challenge these people and insist on a change of course. If they prevail unchecked the outlook for human life on this planet has the distinct probability of being unpalatable.
December 6 1941, Red Army starts it counter attack on third reich
forces at Moscow outskirts .
December 11 1941, Adolf Hitler declares war on USA, just to show
how untroubled he is.
It’s such a shame the Lamestream Media has ever let themselves sink to such low levels as to even consider printing this trash. But since the media’s lost most credibility, most readership, and most of their advertising dollars, they have to accept chicken feed wherever they find it.
It’s also a shame that eight years of USA Republican Party “leadership” only showed they can’t lead, that they’re the same greedy bastards as the Pandercrats, and that for the most part, they don’t have a clue about one issue or another. The Republicans could have brought Hansen to his knees by demanding he disclose how he manipulates the data, but they didn’t. Instead, these pathetic nitwits folded their tents and let Hansen off the hook.
Bush, Hastard, and Friesch destroyed the Republican Party in such a manner I doubt if we’ll ever see it resurge again in our lifetimes. Their stupidity, pandering, and greed has let down America with the loudest thud I’ve ever witnessed.
And as far as Hansen is concerned, we must continue unraveling our climate and educate the public on its reality as opposed to the fear mongering generated by the hansenites. That’s the only way we can put the likes of Hansen out of business.
Jack Koenig, Editor
The Mysterious Climate Project
http://www.climateclinic.com
Hansen attacks democracy for not working.
He has obviously been reading Shearman and Smith, “The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy”, which seriously recommends rule “by experts and not by those who seek power”.
In which case he will, with the greatest of reluctance, force himself, most unwillingly, to step to the fore.
Hold it folks. As much as I despise the man the article does not quote Hansen calling for people to be jailed. It is reporting a rumour that will likely never become true even if it had some basis in fact.
“Hansen attacks democracy for not working.”
This is a common feature amongst elitists. They are always complaining that messy democracy rarely comes up with the right answer. With the right answer being defined as what ever the elitists believes today.
This is why politicians of this stripe like it when courts overrule the democratic process to impose the “correct” solution upon the ignorant masses.
Jim Hansen,
Go ahead and build that 150′ scaffold for your enemies. And please don’t read “Esther” in the meantime. Poetic justice is a fine thing.
Hansen was on the Diane Rehm show this morning for one hour and called for trials for crimes against humanity for people opposing his position regarding AGW. He also blamed AGW for the recent floods and California fires. He predicted sea level rise of several feet due to sheet ice melting. I urge posting of a transcript online, it was hair raising.
another thought. hansen believes that people should be put on trial for spreading doubt. It’s a crime. How about the crime of spreading fear?
One could argue that creating fear is more dangerous that creating doubt.
He is accusing them of “high crimes against … nature.” The legal definition of which being, well, intimate relationships with animals? Or has he established a new form of government whose charter is “For the environment, by environmentalists, against corporations.” I don’t seem to remember that our Constitution grants Congress this power.
This should be lockup in Bellevue
Since Hansen’s main backer Soros is a commodies futures trader and a certain commody has increase greatly maybe we need a RICO, SEC, and fraud investigations of him. We can throw in Al Gore as undeclared lobbyist and SEC violations for promoting carbon credits he is heavily invested in. I think a fine for Soros/Hansen in order of $100/per barrels produced in 2008 say 15,643.285 barrels of oil per day*$100 per barrel*365 days per year or $856,469,826.375.00
I like the part where George Soros gave him $720,000 reasons to change from global cooling to global warming.
http://www.topix.com/news/global-warming/2007/09/nasa-scientist-james-hansen-receives-george-soros-money
What a jerk!
BUCK036 said, “Our Liberial (sic) enforced (Dumb down education system) has put the fate of this Country in the hands of a bunch of totally “Uninformed/Misinformed” voters.”
You and Hanson seem to be made of the same cloth. Blanket blame statements are the stock and trade of talkative AGW’s who spend time publicizing their beliefs instead of blindly (the only way to do it) investigating cause and effect theories.
I am just glad that Dr. Hansen is in his late 60’s. He should be retiring soon. Then perhaps a change at NASA GISS will be possible.
Hansen’s gone totally insane.
I just sent an email to NASA as follows:
Why is this person allowed to spew his anti science venom while being an employee of the government? Ten of thousands of thoughtful true scientists and well researched lay persons do not accept the agenda driven CO2 dogma. I can’t speak for everybody but I and vast numbers of others I communicate with are not in any way affilliated with “big oil”.
What we seek is open inquiry of science issues and falsifiable results, not silencing of those with an opposing view.
Hanson is a disgrace to NASA and to true scientists and seekers of knowledge everywhere.
FIRE this lunatic, Lloyd Graves
“http://www.nasa.gov/about/contact/ask_nasa_form.html”
“You and Hanson seem to be made of the same cloth. ” Pam Gray
Pam, you still don’t get freedom, do you? Why do we need a government school system? Its purpose is not to educate but to indoctrinate.
A rule of thumb:
Good ideas do not have to be enforced on others; bad ideas should not be.
We now have a situation where a mad scientist may wreck the world’s economy which just might lead to a world war as the Great Depression led to WWII.
My dear sister Pam,
with locks flowing red,
has bats in her attic
but science in her head.
My dear sister Pam,
my fondness no sham.
I wish you quite well.
May your head not now swell.
In spite of liars like hansen and gore, the public isn’t buying into their trash.
According to another article in the Guardian published on 6-22-08 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/22/climatechange.carbonemissions ) most Britons doubt cause of climate change.
After spending hundreds of millions of dollars brainwashing Brittons, the vast majority are still not convinced that climate change is caused by humans - and many others believe scientists are exaggerating the problem, according to an exclusive poll for The Observer.
Jack Koenig, Editor
The Mysterious Climate Project
http://www.climateclinic.com
This also means that Hansen is calling for the jailing of scientists like Richard Lindzen etc.
It`s time for the scientists like Lindzen and the other 30,000 who signed the recent Oregon petition to stand up and defend their freedom.
It`s time to fight fire with fire - time to call for criminal charges against Hansen and the media that peddled his lies.
REPLY: He hasn’t used the word “jail” but rather “trials”.
Let’s put NASA chiefs on trial for murdering Grissom, White, and Chafee by using pure Oxygen in a capsule stuffed with miles of electrical circuits. Another trial for Apollo 13, when NASA cut corners by hurriedly boiling an O2 tank dry after a prior launchpad test run. The tank’s internal heater system wasn’t designed for continuous operation, or the higher voltage from the launchpad umbilical. That’s why the tank, with a stuck thermostat, later became a ticking bomb when mens’ lives were at stake. Criminal negligence, for sure. Then there’s the Challenger deaths, victims of NASA’s kowtowing to the Greens. The original design was for a safe one-piece booster, but NASA quickly switched to a dangerous segmented one, so that they could avoid digging a booster recovery canal in the fetid swamp of the Everglades. Dodging a Green eco-lawsuit was considered more important than safety. Someone should have had NASA in court over that one. The most recent murders also are a result of putting Green before human lives. Our brilliant chemists can’t use their full arsenal of foam products, because NASA is worried that the re-entry burnup smoke may be toxic. The tank sheds worse than a Lhasa-Apso in June, because they won’t use tough insulators. NASA lights the candle, anyway. Someone should sue them for not making safety paramount. Each accident was preventable, and the result of NASA bigwig’s arrogance, period. I’ve lived through all of these events, most of it pre-internet, and highly politicized sites like Wikipedia certainly will have a different, sanitized view. Too bad. For a guy like Hansen, we’re all just a bunch of Laikas, the Russian space-pooch that was sent on a one-way ride.
MattN: Joe McCarthy wasn’t entirely wrong. Read (Google) the Venona Papers, archives from the defunct Soviet Union.
Well if there is too much “free speech”, and democracy is failing to provide the required result, the answer is obvious.
Burn a witch.
That gives the believers an “revenge indulgence”, and an additional reason to stay in the fold.
It also puts the fear of penalty into any that don’t believe, or might be skeptical.
This is not “rocket science”. Too bad that is the business NASA is supposed to be in.
If you are short on reading time, a quick primer on GW can be found in John Coleman’s comments presented to the San Diego Chamber of Commerce:
Sorry… link didn’t post…
Global Warming and the Price of a Gallon of Gas:
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/19842304.html
Hansen has been targeting universities and young people in general, because they are easier to convince that prior to 1988 there wasn’t any bad weather. Their lack of historical perspective makes them easy targets for predators.
Congress on the other hand is made up of older people who have no excuse. None of them have read Steinbeck, have read about the Galveston Hurricane, or remember the droughts in China which killed tens of millions in the 1960s?
He actually said that ‘global warming’ caused the flooding in the midwest? I was blaming THAT on incredibly stupid reporters.
Old Gasser, I’ve also thought that Jim Hansen on his ecological jihad is responsible for the deaths of the shuttle astronauts.
“MattN: Joe McCarthy wasn’t entirely wrong. Read (Google) the Venona Papers, archives from the defunct Soviet Union.”
No, but when he started pointing his finger at the US Army, public opinion dramatically and drastically turned against him. He may have rooted out a commie or two, but overall he did far more harm than good.
Is this much different?
Will no one rid Us of this troublesome bureaucrat?