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
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The airlines which were affected by the environ-mentalists ‘Plane Stupid’s sit down on the runway protest at Stanstead airport are considering suing the individuals for damages and banning them from using their planes.
Perhaps the US energy producers should do the same here and refuse to supply those who damage or blockade their plant.
Maybe the airlines should refuse to do business with people who are detrimental to their business. Let people find other ways to travel to their Global Warming protests and pseudoscientific conferences.
This is like one of those protests in the U.S.S.R. during
the 80s, when government protestors, protested for
the policies of the government. I don’t think our kids
are that stupid!
Are you sure, indoctrination as education, showing the inconvenient truth films in schools, if they dont know any different.
Voltaire said: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Sadly…no!
It seems time to recall how Prof James Hansen explained climate changes 30 years ago. Back in 1981 the James Hansen team published their finding that, overall, Earth’s average temperature rose by about 0.4°C for the period from 1880 to 1978, but there was a global cooling from 1940-1970 (*) that he considered subsequently as follows: “I think the cooling that Earth experienced through the middle of the twentieth century was due in part to natural variability,” he said. “But there’s another factor made by humans which probably contributed, and could even be the dominant cause: aerosols.” If he indeed believed in this mechanism, his call for civil disobedience in coal burning matters show inconsistency in his argumentation. Actually one should ask him to explain the global cooling from 1940 to about 1970 in the first place, (see: http://www.oceanclimate.de/Archiv/apr_08.html), to ensure to he understands what he is talking about.
(*) David Herring, November 5, 2007, „Earth’s Temperature Tracker“ , NASA at : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/GISSTemperature/printall.php
“If he indeed believed in this mechanism, his call for civil disobedience in coal burning matters show inconsistency in his argumentation.”
No it does not. the climatic effects of aerosols, such as the cooling effect from burning coal, lasts only a year or so at most, until the aerosols are washed out of the atmosphere by rain. The warming effect of the CO2 emitted lasts for hundreds of years.
How do you know? Reread your source, paying attention to mention of “uncertainty”, “estimated”, and “unknown”.
AGW…………….. Science or religion ?
The term “religion” refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction.
One comparison I have head lately is the parallel between AGW and religious belief. If you examine the definition of religion you will see there is a big similarity with AGW philosophy. Both are based on a belief system with little or no scientific basis, or where contradictory scientific facts are ignored or manipulated. (eg: earth is 10k yo, created in 7 days, Adam & Eve…etc)
You can even look at how the AGW sermon is being run. With Al Gore as head of the church and many deciples (eg: Mr Hansen) preaching to the masses. Now the followers are assembling on mass in formalised gatherings to help strengthen their convictions amid real scientific evidance which is contradictory to their engrained belief system. As more scientific evidance to the contrary is presented then we will see a further intensity of this AGW conviction since the realisation of much time spent on a wasted belief would be all too painfull to swallow.
Remember when the earth was preached as the centre of the universe by the Catholic Church (aside from being flat !). Gallilao spent 8 years under house arrest for preaching a round earth which orbited the sun. A claim he was forced to recant in order to aviod being executed.
Being scientifically correct does not always mean you will be accepted by all others. But it does give a warm feeling inside, regardless of the cold outside.
You are mis-stating the details of this debate. Check out wmbriggs.com on this topic.
More precisely see footnote 1 here: http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?s=Galileo&submit=Go
Amen.
People should look up the Trostkyist tactic called ‘entryism’, they set up front groups with apparently reasonable goals to atract large groups and they direct that for there own purposes. Here in the UK in the 80s we had a group of them in the Labour party called millitant. Now one of the Trotskyist groups called “Socialist Workers Party” has done the same with the Stop the War coaltion of traitors (Lindsey Germain the leader of STW is one of the leaders of the SWP). Google for this its all on the public record. Now the SWP is moving into the climate agenda!
Perhaps the whole climate change agenda is just a plot cooked up by the Marxists to disrupt capitalism and freedom…..
Perhaps? There is no perhaps about it. The people who get a warm feeling at the notion of cuddling polar bears and hugging trees without actually doing so or burdening themselves with any knowledge of the real world ( I would guess the overwhelming majority) are the sheep that these people shear. They think they are saving the planet when they are unwittingly doing the opposite. Hansen made some tastless comparisons in his diatribe about coal trains. His supporters seem to be rather blind to what might well happen should his veiws prevail.
The original YouTube of Hansen’s polemic is here:
It’s interesting reading the comments on YouTube from the general public [they can be viewed by scrolling down to just below the original YouTube video of Hansen].
I occasionally wonder if the people posting here are the ones out of step with the general consensus. But after reading the comments on YouTube, it’s clear that Hansen, the executive councils of the AAAS, and the “leaders” of the other peer review journals are the ones who are out of step with their members and the general public.
[Also, it doesn’t hurt to give a one-star [out of five] rating to the video. You can vote just under the video itself. Look for the red stars.]
Greenland near all time record low temperature, off topic.
All time low is – 63,3 Celcius.
Yesterday we had – 62,0 Celcius – and the cold is not over yet it seems:
http://www.klimadebat.dk/forum/opdaterede-sol-is-hav-temp-grafer-osv–d12-e424-s240.php#post_10852
Here is the direct link to the coldest place on Greenland, Summit:
http://www.summitcamp.org/transport/weatherstation/mainpage.py?view=Month
Right now as i write we have – 56, but its day temperature..
All the best to you at WUWT!! – Frank
Science is clear eh.. Which definition of clear is he using.
clear meaning, easily seen through (as in a lie as people on this board see through hansens and gores pronouncments). or
clear meaning easily visible, (as in simple to understand)
or even Clear meaning unhampered by restriction or limitation (clear profit)
I believe that would be, as the expression goes, clear as mud!
Frank Lansner
Was there record cold four weeks ago also in Greenland when the US, UK, and Germany had record cold?
what we need is plenty of anti hansen people carrying signs like “hansen lies”
“sack hansen” etcetc, and hand out rebuttal information , the media will pick up on it if there is enough protest it will help to undermine his public credability .
Media will ignore it.
Better to let the media have a laugh at all the warmies freezing their buns off in DC on the 2nd. The irony won’t be lost on the public. Jim is a novice when it comes to organising demos. Always pick a summer weekend for this kind of caper.
How about a counter demo in July? Everyone can come in sunglasses and T-shirts and have some fun in the sun.
How about July 4, on the Mall? I’ve already arranged for flags, music, and carbon-filled fireworks. Maybe you can take a day off from work, just ask your boss if you have to work on July 4.
We can’t be there waving signs. We have work to do.
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.
Awww. Anthony.
Why did you go and warn him? We could have got rid of him once and for all. Now Jimmy is going to pull an Eli Rabett.
Say could this be the reason that the Tamino’s and Eli Rabett’s of the alarmist world use psuedonyms instead of real names?
Frog marching a rabett for violation of the Hatch Act. How cool would that be huh?
Perhaps Tamino IS James Hansen?
I love the way the students rate “Eli Rabett” on ratemyprofessors.com: click
There seems to be a continual argument on here that links warmists with left wing politics. This could be true that most warmists are left wing. It does not follow that left wingers are all warmists. I am in sympathy with a lot of left wing views and I am sure that this continual linking of left wing and warmist philosophy is counter productive and not scientific, except in a vague trend sort of way. I do find it rather offensive and off putting. Can the arguments be made without the broad brush condemnation?
jeez concurs. It is time to break away from the stereotype that believing in AGW defines one as part of the political left, or the converse, that being a skeptic defines one on the political right (or makes you a flat earther, creationist, drooling neanderthal etc.)
Agreement here as well, FWIW.
Unfortunately, the AGW myth has been co-opted by the extreme ‘environmental’ and the socialist Left, because it’s such a handy-dandy stick with which to beat the evil capitalists, and it’s knocking off great anti-corporate, anti-American fruit.
It must be tough being a liberal and watching good science being trashed for purely ideological motives—sort of like being a conservative and having to deal with the whacky Creationists.
/Mr Lynn
Don’t deny it is being used as a stick to beat capitalism. No coincidence that this whole climate thing started just as the former soviet union collapsed.
But we should avoid the discussion being dismissed as the ravings of “right wing bigots”. That is how the skeptic argument could be traduced. So it is important that the points be made without the tone that allows the arguments to be dismissed and not to be answered!
Lindsay H
Rather than slogans surely we could produce a factual version of the Hockey stick. The Keeling Curve/ Mann hockey stick only work if the Bristlecone pines are highly selected and Global temperatures to 1850 used. This latter measurement has no scientific basis whatsover-as well as being a meaningless concept it is based on a tiny number of inconsistent and unreliable stations (as few as 100 in 1850 of which 40 are known to be inaccurate).
If you use National records that go back far enough the Keeling Curve/HS doesnt work. These are unsmoothed Hadley CET to 1660 (without removal of last 50 years UHI)
http://cadenzapress.co.uk/download/man_vs_nature.jpg
More a series of irregular humps than a Hockey stick. Project that back to Roman times and it would start to look quite cool in the modern day.
These would look good on a placard!
tonyB
“The Keeling Curve/ Mann hockey stick only work if the Bristlecone pines are highly selected and Global temperatures to 1850 used.”
What on Earth are you talking about?
The Keeling Curve is the graph of atmospheric CO2 concentrations measured at Mauna Loa since 1958.
The Hockey Stick(s) refer to graph(s) of average global (or northern hemisphere) temperatures that show a rapid increase in temperatures in recent decades such that recent temperatures exceed any for the last thousand or more years. Both those using bristlecone pines and those using no tree-ring data at all show similar results.
They are based on entirely separate datasets.
Lindsay H, TonyB (04:11:50) :
“‘Rather than slogans surely we could produce a factual version of the Hockey stick. The Keeling Curve/ Mann hockey stick only work if the Bristlecone pines are highly selected and Global temperatures to 1850 used. This latter measurement has no scientific basis whatsover-as well as being a meaningless concept it is based on a tiny number of inconsistent and unreliable stations (as few as 100 in 1850 of which 40 are known to be inaccurate).
If you use National records that go back far enough the Keeling Curve/HS doesnt work. These are unsmoothed Hadley CET to 1660 (without removal of last 50 years UHI)
http://cadenzapress.co.uk/download/man_vs_nature.jpg
More a series of irregular humps than a Hockey stick. Project that back to Roman times and it would start to look quite cool in the modern day.’
“These would look good on a placard!”
Great idea!!! If the same one, two, or three visuals were used by all supporters of science and the scientific method, attention might be paid.
(I hope the quotation marks are properly placed.)
T-shirts with an actual temperature graph are available:
http://rankexploits.com/musings/2009/open-thread-and-a-silly-mug/
Better wear long johns fi you’re going.
http://www.wetter24.de/de/home/wetter/profikarten/gfs_popup/archiv/NAmerica/t2m/2009022306/nothumb/on/174/ch/725ac064ce.html
I am british, i dont have any political axes. right is right and wrong is wrong, i hate liars. and i Beleive that AGW is one of the biggest lies out there at the moment.
people are getting bogged down in where to stand, its not about that its about the future, do we want to belong to a world where lies rule. where obvious flaws in methodology denies human rights.
AGW should cross every political strata, every religious, every barrier. thats what we need to do get everyone from all walk of life from every country to stand up and be counted.
You’re right.
But seems one political spectrum (The Left) employs the art of lying far more than some others do.
The Left doesn’t Lie as such, it just regards emotional conviction as an acceptable substitute for rational thought.
The Hatch Act is mostly a hollow shell. Even if by some miracle Hansen was found to have violated the act the most he’d get is a slap and a 30 day non-paid vacation from his government employment since it’s unlikely it would be ruled sufficient to remove him. Twenty year government employees are about as safe from prosecution as your dead great-great-great grandparents.
Let’s see, the Office of Special Counsel. Any guesses as to who staffs offices like these in the Federal Government? Then they refer it to the Inspector General of the agency involved. For Hansen, any guesses who staffs that office? Check http://www.osc.gov/wbdisc.htm if you’re really interested in filing a complaint. imho, not even worth the time to read this post. Anyway, the process could take years.
A better strategy would be to simple discredit him in the court of public opinion. There seems to be ample proof for that. What is needed is a better megaphone than blog sites.
Maybe a reply on his you tube video linking a video refuting his BS (bad science)?
“Let’s see, the Office of Special Counsel. Any guesses as to who staffs offices like these in the Federal Government? ”
From the other side the further it all goes before it seen to be a busted flush, the bigger the bonfire of scapegoats afterwards. Ex-warmists will lynch Hansen to show that they never believed. Gore may well slime out of it, but Hansen is toast.
Make sure you place your opinion on their facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?sid=25c7b5b46781c6403746dca1e1dfa5a8&eid=50666378622
I think calling for James Hansen to be fired is extremely imprudent.
He is a towering figure in the movement to promote AGW, second only to Al Gore. His position in NASA is probably the only thing holding him back at all. If he is fired he will immediately be free to accept massive funding and to exploit his stature to campaign vastly more actively and–I am afraid–successfully.
The very last thing we want is Hansen off the leash.
If you want to write to his boss, how about suggesting that he be given a vast budget to study the atmosphere of Jupiter or Mars?
Good grief, is this, and his recent ‘death trains’ comment, a display of Hansen on the leash? If he’s on a leash from NASA it’s pretty thin and darn near invisible.
What, in situ?
why is he a kook?
cause his ideas are radical and crazy sounding?
One thing that might rile demonstrators is the fact that Hansen supports nuke energy.
How about spreading the word that Hansen is a shill for the nuke industry? Certainly a motive for campaigning against coal as he does.
Hansen Supports Nuclear Power!
I’ll have more to say later, but there’s something I wanted to stay under the radar until closer to this weekend. However, plans change….
On Feb 28, Dr. Hansen will be giving the keynote speech at American Mensa’s Annual Colloquium. The program is heavily weighted toward the AGW camp, so I figured I was duty-bound to go and tout our side. For both that event and New Hampshire Mensa’s Regional Gathering a couple weekends ago, I wrote a report on the State of the Climate – 2009. I will also print out this article and part of the comment section and leave copies at various places around the event.
I am not going to become an anti-Hansen protester, but will stick to the science (or lack thereof). Well, I might point out that the emperor has no clothes.
The event is not open to the general public, and I’m not sure if there is a same day registration deal, but if for any Mensans out there who can make it to Dunwoody GA (Atlanta suburb), check it out, if you haven’t already. Please do not send anti-Hansen mail to the Colloquium organizers – I need some of their attention and will make them aware of this article.
It will be interesting to see how far Hansen strays from his planned address, from http://colloq09.us.mensa.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Program7 :
These people are nothing but criminals. Lets stop calling them anything else.
NASA Office of Inspector General
Some important contact information; full text available at:
http://oig.nasa.gov/investigations/field_offices.html
Eastern Field Office (EFO)
The Eastern Field Office is responsible for conducting criminal investigations in which NASA is a victim. The EFO also performs investigations involving waste and mismanagement…
Michael W. Sonntag, EFO Special Agent in Charge
Langley Research Center
Mail Stop 205, Building 1149 (Investigations)
Hampton VA 23681-2199
Voice: 757-864-8116; Fax: 757-864-9705
E-mail: Michael.W.Sonntag@nasa.gov
Joseph Schopper, GSFC Resident Agent in Charge
Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 190, Building 1 – Investigations
Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001
Voice: 301-286-7776; Fax: 301-286-0355
E-mail: Joseph.A.Schopper-1@nasa.gov
[more contacts given at web page above]
Text of Email.
FAO Robert Strain.
Dear Mr Strain,
I am a British subject and I resent you giving carte blanche to your inferior worker, to travel to my country and appear as an defence witness for people who are trespassing on private property. Your employee is also contravening the Hatch Act.
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
Tell him to stop it please.
Yours truly,
Perry Debell
Slioch (06:32:57) : said
“The Keeling Curve/Mann hockey stick only work if the Bristlecone pines are highly selected and Global temperatures to 1850 used.”
What on Earth are you talking about?”
I think you have completely missed the point, although subsequent readers understood it!
The Keeling curve measures Atmospheric Co2 which allegedly is going up in line with temperatures-but only if the unrealistic 1850 global ones are used-not national data sets. The hockey stick relies on the same artefact. The temperatures does not in reality tick up like that at all so the co2 hypotheses relationship is unproven
http://cadenzapress.co.uk/download/man_vs_nature.jpg
Look again at the numerous ‘hockey sticks’ prior to Modern times which even happened during the LIA. What I am suggesting is that a graph of past temperatures (back to the Bronza Age) is more potent than slogans, especially if co2 is drawn in. Please re-read my post rather than suggesting I am saying something I did not. Thank you.
TonyB
If you believe in the Beck figures for CO2, little wonder you are confused. They are total nonsense. Note, for example, that they require the removal of some 200 billion tons of CO2 (from c.920,000 to 720,000 million tons) from the atmosphere within a couple of years or so around 1950, and show similar wild fluctuation s elsewhere. Perhaps you would like to suggest a mechanism as to how that could be accomplished. Such changes are completely beyond explanation – they are caused by wild sampling errors.
The Keeling Curve is not “allegedly” … “going up in line with temperatures”. Keeling started taking measurements in 1958. The measurements show annual variations due to changes in northern hemisphere vegetation plus an average increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere that is itself is increasing (ie the graph is concave up). Those annual variations in the Keeling Curve verify the curve, since they show that it is sufficiently accurate to pick up repeated annual variations. Apart from that the Keeling Curve is a smooth upwards curve – completely at odds with the nonsense published by Beck for just a few decades earlier.
Expecting a close correlation between CO2 concentrations and average global temperature is fatuous, since other factors influence global temperatures, though the following graph indicates some correlation:
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3vgl/from:1908/to:2008/scale:1000/offset:10/plot/esrl-co2/from:1908/to:2008/scale:10/offset:-3000
Inhofe’s Enviroment and Public Works site is down. Does anyone know why?
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs
It looks like all of Senate.gov is down. Maybe the Revolution has started. 🙂
Nevermind, It’s back now.
I feel Hansen’s participation in the protest and the video are inappropriate. But, that is nothing unusual for him. It is amazing that he still has a job with NASA. Between his abusive of position and questionable management of data he should have been fired long ago. That would have occurred in an ethical world. However, I don’t think the Hatch Act can be employed against Hansen. The situation / case does not appear to be covered by Hatch.
I generally regard Watts Up With That as a science site. As such, I have in the past muted my political commentary when participating here. It is, however, great to have Anthony step into the realm of the political side of the carbon emission issue. AGW (in the Gore & Hansen definition), the IPCC, etc. after all are essentially political issues rather than a science issue. A big part of it was started by Maggie Thatcher for political purpose and it has remained so.
Gore and Hansen know that alarmism sells. Using alarmism they can keep the issue and their agendas (Gore to make money, Hansen to kill the coal industry) in the forefront of the media attention. Real science, rational thinking, is thus for the most part silenced. This blog entry, with the popularity of WUWT can help correct part of that.
Alarmism sells. Hence, with some regret, on my own blog I have cranked up the level of alarmist rhetoric. Fight fire with fire.
Democide
Fuel Poverty
Sloppy ‘Science’ ; Scientific and Political Negligence
Science – Ethic and Responsibility
Obama Appoints Socialist / Hansen recommends Redistribution of Wealth
Is ignoring potential dangerous climate non-specific genocide?
My blog is not as well known as WUWT. As stated above, it is great to see Anthony take a moment to use his level of web traffic to counter-attack the inappropriate action of Hansen.
Sincere Regards,
Lee Kington
To cedarhill (04:42:36)
The process may take years. But it never happens if it is never started. Further, a large influx of complaints brings heat AND media attention. That media attention opens the door to putting the issue in front of the populace. If they react, then pressure is also put on politicians. One cannot win a battle they don’t fight.
Lee Kington (07:24:03):
Those links don’t work.
/Mr Lynn
Point is even if a complaint is filed it would have no “legs” in MSM parlance. They would style him a “pioneer”, even a “whistleblower” and in any event an all around good guy championing the good green fight.
Time would be better spent simply discrediting his motives, his methods and his theories. Good satire tends to work best. The upcoming EPA finding CO2 a pollutant might present the opportunity to go after the science. Actually suing NOAA and the EPA might be even better.