Some have said in the past that Jim Hansen of NASA GISS is no longer a scientist, but an advocate. Today, by his own hand, I believe that description rings true.
Click for video
Here is what Greenpeace is using Dr. Hansen for:
It’s time to take a stand on global warming. Dr. James Hansen, an internationally-recognized climate scientist, calls for Americans to take part in the Capitol Climate Action on March 2 at the Capitol power plant in Washington DC — expected to be the largest display of civil disobedience against global warming in US history. Dr. Hansen warns that unless we stop burning coal, the country’s largest source of global warming pollution, young people will inherit a dramatically different world than the one we know. For more info visit capitolclimateaction.org.
Let us hope that nobody is injured or killed at this demonstration. Hansen may run afoul of the Hatch Act, see below.
For those of you that wish to write letters, here is the info:
Jim Hansen’s email: jhansen@giss.nasa.gov
His supervisor is Robert Strain at Goddard Space Flight Center: rstrain@gsfc.nasa.gov (which apparently does not wor)
So try: public-inquiries@gsfc.nasa.gov
Here is what the US Office of Special Counsel says about the Hatch Act as it applies to Federal Employees, of which I believe Dr. Hansen is one. You can file complaints online here with the office of Special Counsel
Federal employees should also be aware that certain political activities may also be criminal offenses under title 18 of the U.S. Code. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 210, 211, 594, 595, 600, 601, 602, 603, 604, 605, 606, 607, 610.
Permitted/Prohibited Activities for Employees Who May Participate in Partisan Political Activity
These federal and D.C. employees may–
- be candidates for public office in nonpartisan elections
- register and vote as they choose
- assist in voter registration drives
- express opinions about candidates and issues
- contribute money to political organizations
- attend political fundraising functions
- attend and be active at political rallies and meetings
- join and be an active member of a political party or club
- sign nominating petitions
- campaign for or against referendum questions, constitutional amendments, municipal ordinances
- campaign for or against candidates in partisan elections
- make campaign speeches for candidates in partisan elections
- distribute campaign literature in partisan elections
- hold office in political clubs or parties
These federal and D.C. employees may not–
- use official authority or influence to interfere with an election
- solicit or discourage political activity of anyone with business before their agency
- solicit or receive political contributions (may be done in certain limited situations by federal labor or other employee organizations)
- be candidates for public office in partisan elections
- engage in political activity while:
- on duty
- in a government office
- wearing an official uniform
- using a government vehicle
- wear partisan political buttons on duty
I doubt Strain, a democrat with a bachelors in business, would do anything.
I sent the site to foxnews.
I would recommend sending to CNN and the Lou Dobbs show. Occasionally he will run with a story like this and seems to hold a fair amount of credibility both right and left, and has a lot of influence to people in the center.
Perhaps one of you eloquently speaking individuals (there are several here) would be so kind to prepare a sensible draft that may get a serious looksie?
Drafted a fairly objective email to Mr Strain – and received…..
“Delivery to the following recipients failed permanently:”
Which is par for the course. I followed my email up with my 2 Senators and 1 Representative. He can’t be in the position he occupies, and advocate in this manner. It is a clear conflict of interest, and as a private citizen, he would be unfettered in pursuing his stated goals.
What ever happened to my generation’s motto ” Challenge Authority”. I have debated AGW with many people and none of them can go much further than I don’t know but the scientists says….. This generation is more lemming like.
I like Ike’s warning.
I never knew it even existed before, until someone posted it…Ike’s 2nd warning.
That would make for a great story in the headlines as the demonstration to cut half the power in the US off is going on.
It’s even worse for me. I remember seeing Ike’s warning years ago but just didn’t make the connection. Perhaps reminding Hansen’s supervisors and the administration of Ike’s warning would be appropriate.
Normally I no longer post on threads about Hansen, Gore, et al, since I find myself wanting to describe them in uncomplimentary, snipable 3 and 4 letter words — passion tends to overcome logic.
I’m so fundamentally furious and outraged at Ike’s first warning that I have a hard time paying much heed to his second warning.
Besides, I don’t think the scientists are leading us over a cliff. I don’t think there is a consensus among scientists on this issue in the first place. (I wrote a guest post here on the role of science last March 8th, and I have not changed my mind since then.)
It’s hard to beleive that this nut case would demand we end 50% of our US power source.
Science has turned politics so,,,
I hate to go this way but the only way there can be any pressure is by placing the blame for this madness on the ruling Democrat party.
There are many Democrats sitting in silence who know this fraud is unfolding but resist temptations to sway.
It must be made clear and loud that the Democrat Party and their status quo power and control will not escape blame and consequences for this AGW crusade.
@John F. Hultquist (21:43:18) : “I do wonder if he or some close family member was slighted by the coal and/or power.”
I wonder if there is some pathological mental instability that runs in his family.
Yes, there is. The only question is how many generations… 1, 2, …
In the video, Hansen says “join us in this action, this protest” and that information “can be found on capitolclimateaction.org “.
A link on that site, “action guidelines”, goes to http://www.capitolclimateaction.com/?page_id=2
“We expect thousands or people to participate, with large numbers risking arrest in a peaceful act of civil disobedience, surround the plant, disrupting access, and refusing to leave when asked.”
It may very well be that Hansen can be held personally responsible and liable for advocating the breaking of laws, and perhaps liable for any criminal activity that results. At the very least, if any “civil disobedience” occurs, Hansen will be implicated in the news.
I really want this to happen. Everyone knows that coal supplies a very large part of out energy needs. Disrupting the functioning of a coal plant will just show the world how nutty Hansen is.
Come to think of it, maybe Hansen inspired Greenpeace mass demonstration at the Captial Power Plant is a great idea. I know a lot of Americans get really turned off when they see these demonstrations. Especially when they get the news that half the power in the US is going to get cut.
Vegetarians for global warming!
🙂
Our power Not Flower Power
“Save the plants! They need CO2, and we do too!”
Pun intended. How about a bumper sticker?
/Mr Lynn
Excellent, I’ll buy that one.
“CO2! Good for YOU!”
“Got breath?”
“Feed a plant. Exhale.”
Something to look up: South Africa has suffered from lack of planning, power plant planning that is. I saw some videos of before & after thier common rolling blackouts. In one, you see cars, massive city lights etc. In the next frame, you see the same scene with cars, but no city lights. They hadn’t even figured out how to cut the street lights and office buidlings to avoid blackout.
I believe the US is hard wired in much the same way.
You can’t walk over and shut off a major portion of a city’s lights.
Residential being 1/3 total consumption, and cutting 1/2 the grid out, means guaranteed nationwide rolling blackouts.
And the price of electric power will increase ten-fold.
[snip – no labeling please]
He’s both.
Don’t real scientists fully reveal their nonproprietaty, nonclassified data and methods?
If a body doesn’t operate openly it doesn’t necessarily mean they are wrong. He may be right or he may be wrong. But what he is doing–right or wrong–falls more under the definition of “alchemy” than “science”.
Shoot, I want to go there and counter-demonstrate against those leftist weenies.
I think shutting down the Capitol Power Plant is the only good idea Hansen has ever come up with! Let our congressmen in the Capitol find out what life is like without fossil fuel power. That’ll be the end of CO2 regulation!
Turn out the lights, the party’s over………
Yes indeed! Shut down the killer D.C. power plant. Rolling blackouts in the Potomic Basin this summer and every summer!
After all – BIG GOVERNMENT didn’t really get started there until Carrier’s electric-powered air conditioning allowed the Congress and the Beaurocracy to flourish right through the D.C. Dog Days of Summer.
Let them steam naturally in the UHI-fortified Foggy Bottom Summer!
BHOphobe
Unfortunately, the Capitol is no longer directly fed from that plant. The power is fed into the grid. If this power plant shuts down, others will continue feeding the city, although not as efficiently due to greater distance. The plant knows of the demonstration so will simply have a secured perimeter and continue operations, with things returning to normal when the protesters get back in their minivans and go back home. Film at 11, with closeup wide-angle shots so it looks like there is a crowd even if there are only a dozen people.
Re: Robert Rust (20:32:45) :,
Yes, the video doesn’t say anything other than protest. However, at the end of the video, Hansen gives a link to go to and on the link at the top in huge letters, it says:
MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE at the Coal Fired Capital Power Plant, Washington DC.
So as far as I’m concerned, he IS advocating disobedience.
I hope we have a good sized counter protest there…
I hope they DO shut it down, as stated previously, because if it’s disruptive enough, there’s a chance the media will pick up on his Youtube video and make the connection.
Not sure what it would accomplish in the end though…as was pointed out earlier, poor poor Jimmy would just come across as being censored or picked on.
JimB
They will probably get as many (read; as few) people as Al’s Live Earth concert. To use a term that seems popular with the AGW proponents commenting on WUWT; fail.
Hey hey, it’s Jimmy “Che” Hansen. Riot on, Jimmy!
Maybe after his DC mass demonstration, he’ll join the revolutionary cadres. Come the Revolution gonna be no more limousines! Or coal plants! Maybe he’ll buddy up with Obama advisor Bill Ayers in the Weather Underground II. Now that would be ironic on many levels.
Would somebody please tell Jimmy (and Al) that mass”civil disobedience” is passe? I mean, it’s so 1960’s. The nostalgia for street riots is misplaced. The whole deal is so silly. Like, grow up dude!
Maybe Jimbo’s a bit peeved at ‘missing’ the 60s.
DaveE.
Very good observation.
Here in Denver, there was a great deal of talk about ‘civil disobedience’ during the DNC prior to the convention. Millions and millions of dollars were spent preparing the police for the riots and disorder that were sure to follow the crowds. A special holding area was set up to process the thousands to be arrested during the convention. Some likened it to some sort of concentration camp or little Gitmo on the Platte.
After all the build up: nothing. There was one sort of round up of ‘trouble makers’ including one elderly gentleman who was caught up in the scene after picking up some books at the library. The police let him go when he produced his receipts showing he really had been at the library. In the subsequent trial, a total waste of taxpayer monies, the police could not identify a single individual actually guilty of breaking the law.
What an embarrassment. Denver couldn’t even get a good shouting session going, let alone a riot. Of course we were center stage for the anointing of the messiah, but that is another story. He made his ‘second return’ to Denver to sign the stimulus bill in our own Denver Museum of Natural History, which has a set of solar panels on the roof. Another display of how utterly futile alternative energy systems are. It supplies only 5% of the electrical needs of the museum, yet cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’ve noticed costs are never mentioned in the glowing media coverage of this nonsense.
Anyway, on the first day of the convention, I went downtown to the library, after which I wandered around the Civic Center to see what was going on. Naturally, I took my camera. The only thing going on down there was dozens of other people with their cameras, trying to find something to take a picture of.
Very funny.
So you’re right, civil disobedience is so 20th century and there is a nostalgia for those ‘good old days’. But there is just not the anger so palpable back in the 60s, thank goodness. Everybody’s too busy now trying to survive financially. Just wait until the electric bill goes up when we get the carbon tax schemes going. Or gasoline taxes at a dollar a gallon. AGW will be thoroughly discredited. Even if the average person felt AGW was a real threat, it will be treated much like Korea and Hungary were treated back in the 50s, lots of yelling about liberating those people, but not worth a nuclear exchange. Same will go for the polar bears. We really wish we could do something for you, but we aren’t willing to pay the price. There will always be a few in the zoos and we can take comfort in that.
However, AGW will be discredited on the facts alone. This sad episode of a group of people taking themselves so seriously will be a joke in the future. Much as tulip mania is now a joke today.
Could it be that Hansen is getting ready to jump from NASA before he is pushed?
If he is in contravention to the Hatch act, he would probably be cognizant of that fact….. He looks canny enough to know that any publicity is good publicity….and thick skinned enough to love the criticism. He also knows that he will be welcomed to partisan groups and given a healthy salary to feed from for years to come.
NCEP is forecasting temperatures 4-8 degrees below normal through March 2 in Washington.
http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp1.html
Snow would be a nice touch too.
Lol. The Hansen effect in action. We just need Steven Chu to turn up with Al Gore and bring on the sub-zero precipitation.
Yes, the latest weather models are still favoring temperatures below to much below the 30Y (1971-2000) normal on March 2nd. We’ll just need to find a little snow now…
We’ll see, but hopefully few will show up. I browsed thru their website:
http://www.capitolclimateaction.com/
Pretty spooky stuff!!…….then I somehow navigated to
http://www.powershift09.org/
then scrolled down to a photo from caitlinmary’s fliker page. Since I don’t know how to post an image, I’ll give you the url
This is how some people view the world:
http://flickr.com/photos/caitlinmary/3006865124/
Our friend AlGore. Even one of the commenters compares it to 1984
Comment’s are enabled at the forum section of capitolclimateaction. There’s no realclimate type moderator (although you are talking to mostly children and should refrain from cuss words, personal attacks, spamming). Your words aren’t spindled folded or mutilated. So give the children a bit of wisdom.
You might even make a difference.
What forum section? Which tab is that under?
Hardly surprising. Hansen testified in support of Greenpeace vandals that defaced a power plant in the UK back in September.
If I owned the power plant, I would shut it down, for 1 month for “repairs”.
I wonder what NASA thinks of James Hansen being on the front page of the the Greenpeace web site?
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
I wonder what America would think?
POISON PEAS IN A POD
http://www.igreens.org.uk/greenpeace_and_peta.htm
I liked the PETA link. Reminded me of this: click
[And no, that’s not a parody. It’s the real thing. Click on the image to expand.]
An interesting web site.
The Action Now menu is something else.
The fourth option is:-
“Help give food to Starving ……………”
So what could it be?
a) Children
b) Americans
c) Africans
No it is “Sea Life”.
Save a starving Barnacle.
The next menu option “Tell Japan that if defending whaling is a crime, YOU’RE ready to be arrested”. Like the YOU bit, would have preferred WE.
Hmmm…. I clicked on the video and got:
We’re sorry, this video is no longer available.
So, like WUWT?
Never mind… It’s working now, must have been an internet glitch…
“… And for the record, as an anarchist, my first choice is never to put energy into influencing politicians to get things done. But sometimes, that is a logical step along the way to greater goals, and I support that.”
This is a direct quote of one of the intending participants from the climate org blog organising this protest. Unfortunately these things are not about environmentalism but “greater goals” for cultural haters.
Regards
Michael
Sorry, a link to that quote – http://www.capitolclimateaction.com/?page_id=350 click on the ‘dressing to impress’ hyperlink for this discussion. See message #24 by ‘jen Angel’
I’m hoping Al Gore shows up and brings his blizzard with him… that ought to freeze the idiots who are contemplating coming to the rally.
If the Obama administration goes ahead and implements Carbon taxes this can be the undoing of his plans to gain a second term if the climate continues to remain cold. Freezing Americans will vote him out of office since they’ll be forced to pay higher costs for energy.
Americans, in general, haven’t figured out they’re going to be paying for TARP, the “stimulus”, Social Security, TARP II, and the upcoming mortgage plan. If you believe the MSM, most Americans don’t know what the “A” in ARM stands for or that contracts are really good things to read before you sign. For Americans willingness to re-elect public office holders that are a bit shady, how about the Alaskan Senator in the last election? Seems like there’s still at least one Senator still in office that accepted a bribe on video, stored the money in his freezer, and is still in office! And now the American people are willing to buy the above programs and the idea that we’re going to be fiscally conservative this year at the same time.
Carbon taxes will be “something only business will pay”, right? That’s what they’re being told. Sock it to the rich. Won’t affect me.
If you could get them to shut down every coal-fired plant for just one day, you might get some attention. Let them run the country on air and solar for a week. Otherwise, I’m not sure the idea of how much we depend on fossil fuels will really stick.
It seems that Thaddeus Stevens was railroaded by a corrupt and criminal prosecution. Check it out, there have been recent developments.
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