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
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 @ur momisugly 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