No longer content to be a scientist, and apparently now a full time protesting advocate, Dr. James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies joins forces with deep thinker Darryl Hannah.
From commondreams.org
Following this protest, on June 23rd leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune, the Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, and former Representative Hechler will join Coal River Valley residents in a second round of protests in West Virginia.
Your tax dollars at work. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: FIRE THIS GUY.
Oh there will be those who say “but he’s doing it as a private citizen”.
I preemptively call BS on that.
Why? Well it’s because the U.S. Taxpayer has been an “enabler” for this. Hansen wouldn’t be there if not for the publicly funded work via NASA.
As a private citizen, his opinion is worth nearly nothing. As head of NASA GISS fancifully acting as a private citizen, his opinion and presence are worth boatloads of publicity.
You can’t separate GISS from his persona any more than you can expect Barack Obama to show up someplace “as a private citizen” and endorse something while he holds office.
The premise is absurd.
AMS, ask for the Rossby medal back too. This isn’t science, its advocacy. Gavin, take note since Gavin once labled me as an advocate over on RC, but I haven’t showed up at any protests like Jimbo has.
At least he’s not going to WV unchallenged:
From the Charleston Gazette:
Massey Energy President Don Blankenship has challenged one of the world’s top climate scientists to a debate on global warming.
Blankenship’s announcement came this afternoon, after word came out that renowned NASA scientist James Hansen would be attending an anti-mountaintop removal protest next week in Southern West Virginia.
Gee, I wonder who he voted for, can anyone say “Community Organizer”.
I just complained a bit about Hansen, I think Mann is of the same cloth. Derryl Hannah could talk me into about anything though – as long as she didn’t say it too often.
I’ve started a small project to clean up my work on wrecking the Mann08 hockey stick using better documented turnkey R code and short explanations to make it as easy to understand as possible.
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/hockey-stick-cps-revisited-part-1/
I didn’t renew my membership to the AMS after the Rossby Medal was awarded to Hansen.
Well shut my mouth – and I think I will before I get snipped for letting lose with a tirade against that Jimbo. Charlie Brown said it best…
Good grief!
I love the drab olive color outfit Hansen is wearing. He looks like a character from the Seinfold epsidode where Elaine dates a communist (Ned) and later is blacklisted. Maybe Mr. Hansen could find a new job at Hop Sing’s as a delivery boy.
If you work for the US government, you are 24/7/365 representing the US Government wherever you go and whatever you do. There is no “private citizen” crap…
I haven’t renewed mine since 2005. But something tells me the AMS would support Hanson.
We simply should not accept climate alarmism and bad data from US Government Agencies.
We are conned with our own tax money.
NO TAXES OR EMISSION RESTRICTIONS ON CO2, THE GAS OF LIFE
I’ve said this before when Anthony advocates firing Hansen; to do so will just turn him into a martyr of the AGW movement, and result in a big media splash sympathetic to his cause. The guy’s already received a huge amount of fawning press coverage by falsely claiming the Bush administration “muzzeled” him and his views at the behest of big oil. Just imagine how long he’ll claim the pulpit and the press if he gets fired.
I understand Anthony’s anger that this charlatan gets away with this stuff, but I think in the long term, as the climate demonstrates the the vacuousness
of the science at the heart of AGW theory, Hansen will be far more discredited and forgotten then if he’s fired.
One other consideration. Most people at NASA think Hansen is correct in his AGW views. The Obama administration has taken the AGW bait, hook, line and sinker. These people think Hansen’s public demonstrations are good things. It’s unrealistic to expect that he will be fired.
Anthony, you are an advocate, …. for the TRUTH.
Phil Nizialek (08:54:20) :
The Obama administration has taken the AGW bait, hook, line and sinker.
Realistically, Obama doesn’t care. This is about power and money to him. It doesn’t matter if the science is right, it is merely an excuse the control the energy consumption of the US.
Mark
I wonder how many of these protesters will be actual “residents” of the Coal River Valley . Mt experience while growing up near coal producing areas was that , while not always supporting coal operators , the residents supported coal mining . It was , and still is the main form of employment .
Mark T (09:04:02)
Realistically, Obama doesn’t care. This is about power and money to him. It doesn’t matter if the science is right, it is merely an excuse the control the energy consumption of the US
Mark, I don’t disagree with you. vis a vis Hansen, though, the administration doesn’t want to be seen as firing a strong proponent of the theory that will get them the power they seek.
You cannot fire Hansen, as has been stated he would become a matyr and he would play that up to the living end now that he has free time. During the Kerry-Bush election, he claimed Bush was trying to silence him. It was an outright lie. Bush told him to do his job and stop making private speeches on government time. If you fire him or tell him to do his job, he will just claim you are trying to silence him and will be very vocal about it.
Catastrophic Fire & Ice isn’t the only thing Hansen et al are playing with.
They are gambling on getting thier agenda in place quick enough and entrenched enough to insulate them from the Pitchforks that will follow. It will all go bad as deep cooling sets in at the same time masses of banner wavers abandon the false cause.
That’s the point it gets ugly.
It always does.
Another thing (which I wanted in a separate post) is that these [alarmists] do not take into account the economic impact of getting off coal. Appalachia is poor, coal mining and tourism is all they have. Why does none of the hardcore environmentalists think about the human impact? They care more for a tree than a human, and that is not right. “Sorry you had to starve because you couldn’t find work. But hey, we reduced the CO2 in the atmosphere from 330 parts per million to 329 parts per million!”
Your tax dollars at work. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: FIRE THIS GUY.
Fire. Them. All.
It doesn’t matter if firing Hansen would make a martyr out of the man. He is employed by my tax dollars. As his employer I want him fired for the antics. I don’t want to pay him one more red cent so that he can abuse his power to pose a threat to national security.
If he wants to be an activist let him hang up his hat as the head of the NASA’s Institute for Space Studies. Then he can truly claim to be attending as a “private citizen.”
What do we have to do to get him fired for abuse of power?
REPLY: Letters, lots of them, phone calls, and email.
The truth is, if Darryl Hannah cared about people she would do everything she could to have more coal power plants built so that electricity bills would be lower. She also would do everything she could to have all the drilling in ANWaR done as is humanly possible so gas prices would be lower.
But she has been rich for so many years she is out of touch with the difficulties average people face. She wouldn’t suffer from higher energy costs so it’s easy for her to be an ‘activist’. She is taken in by “the deceitfulness of riches”.
So, if this was a “private citizen” trip/protest/publicity-appearance, how do we verify Hansen actually used his own money and did NOT charge his NASA GISS expense account for travel, food, per diem and expenses, or arrangements and lodging?
REPLY: It is not about expense accounts or paid time (though if he is charging NASA for this rubbish that would indeed be a cause for termination) it is about the fact that public funding has enabled him to get to this point and participate as a “NASA expert on climate” – Anthony
But what about Spencer and Christy doing interviews and advocating the skeptic side of things? I don’t find anything wrong with scientists being advocates for action based on their work.
REPLY: Appearances and articles, and interviews are one thing. I ahve no problems with those as they are within the realms of the job description. Showing up at power plant protests, defending criminals doing vandalism at trial, and endorsing civil disobedience are entirely something else, and Hansen has done all of those things. That is where he crosses the line. – Anthony
I love EXXON MOBILE RANT
http://climaterealists.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=230
Fire this [man]
Wade said:
I don’t think he claimed that Bush personally tried to silence him. He claimed that people in the NASA Public Affairs office did. And, NASA’s Inspector General agreed with him. Here is what the report (http://oig.nasa.gov/investigations/OI_STI_Summary.pdf) found:
The report says there is no evidence that these actions originated at top levels of the Bush Administration or the NASA organization but were rather the result of overzealous political appointees in the NASA Public Affairs Office.
Hi Anthony, I agree with Phil. Let Hansen keep his job. He can join rallies too as long as he wants. The tide of scientific evidence, even anecdotal evidences like delayed planting due to heavy snow in June, is going against AGW. Let him become more defensive and later self-destruct.
Btway, there is huge money in AGW. Money involved in carbon trading in 2007 was around $63B, rose to $120 in 2008. And that involved the EU and Japan alone. If the US, Australia, China, Brazil, etc. are included, the amount will easily hit $1 trillion/year. And that’s for carbon trading alone among corporations. Excluded there are carbon taxes by both federal and state governments (Obama’s plan for instance is around $93 billion/year on average from 2012 to 2019). Then there are several billion $ subsidies for sola and wind farms, other “renewables”.
Of course the biggest lure of AGW is ecological central planning. HUge political power tripping. Politicians and bureaucrats dictating people what energy sources they can use or not, how much emission they can make without penalty, etc.