Even the very liberal UK Guardian picked up on this. What next Jim, the Constitution? NASA, please fire this man. (h/t to Barbara)
Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
From the UK Guardian:
Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said.
James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. “The democratic process doesn’t quite seem to be working,” he said.
Speaking on the eve of joining a protest against the headquarters of power firm E.ON in Coventry, Hansen said: “The first action that people should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash.
“The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes. So, I’m not surprised that people are getting frustrated. I think that peaceful demonstration is not out of order, because we’re running out of time.”
Hansen said he was taking part in the Coventry demonstration tomorrow because he wants a worldwide moratorium on new coal power stations. E.ON wants to build such a station at Kingsnorth in Kent, an application that energy and the climate change minister Ed Miliband recently delayed. “I think that peaceful actions that attempt to draw society’s attention to the issue are not inappropriate,” Hansen said.
He added that a scientific meeting in Copenhagen last week had made clear the “urgency of the science and the inaction taken by governments”.
Read the entire story in the UK Guardian
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Is he doing all this globe-trotting in his own time or is it part of his paid work for NASA?
Here’s something I think you’ll find interesting:
Brain switches off rationality when given `expert advice’
We’ve been searching for an explanation for all of this insanity. I think Scientists are finally making some progress.
Changing data it is the same as lobbying: Means to get the desired end.
While as a Canadian, I don’t know anything about the Hatch Act, but having had worked in government for many years, I experienced many issues where I had to bite my tongue and hide my personal views in order to do my duty in what I thought was an impartial and arms length manner. So it should be for Dr. Hansen. There is nothing stopping Dr. Hansen from resigning his position and dedicating his remaining life to his cause. On the other hand, firing the guy at this stage would only lead to his martyrdom at the hands of those of his persuasion.
He belongs in a padded room.
El Nino study challenges global warming intensity link
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-38669820090324?sp=true
Since when is a peaceful protest “civil disobedience?”
Employment in nearly all sectors is performance related. If you don’t perform well then you get demoted or get sacked.
I don’t care much for the Hatch Act. I would fire Hansen because his performance is terrible. Every prediction he made has failed. His models have failed. And that failure has cost a lot of important money.
Dr. Hansen should be sacked for several reasons. Right now he is bound by restrictions that prohibit any number of potential AGW advocacy efforts. Dr. Hansen needs to be released from these shackles.
I seriously doubt that his leaving NASA will backfire. Any publicity will undoubtably come with new mainstream scrutiny. The MSM likes nothing more than tearing down the icons they erect.
Those blue skies and fluffy white clouds have been photoshopped in. The day of the demo last thursday was windy and cold. It had been a lovely week up until then. Now we have snow and hail forecast.
Is Hansen a direct blood descendent of Thor?
Luis Dias:-)
As a professional he should guard himself against the charge of abusing his position.
A teacher has all the rights in the world to believe whatever he/she wants to believe, BUT, not to bring it into the classroom unless balancing their viewpoint!
And another thing, I have asked you colonial chaps to stop allowing him to come here & telling us how to run our lives, we’ve got a left-wing government to do that for us. I can take a photo of a tube station for posterity purposes & end up tackled by an armed response team, carted off to the nearest detentions centre, arms behind my back, tied with plastic ties, just in case I am an international terrorist (you think I’m kidding don’t you?). This half-wit Hansen can come over here & mouth off incitement to civil disobedience & nobody does a thing under the strictest anti-terror laws on the planet inside a democracy. Only in the UK folks. Help us please, stay democratic & republic as long as you can!
If it weren’t for lobbying by environmental pressure groups then “Global Warming” wouldn’t even be an issue. It has to be said, they are very good at it.
O/T – something has been bothering me for a while. The sun doesn’t have many spots and we know that this corresponds to poor wheat harvests (though not necessarily causes them). As I understand it, both the PDO and NAO have turned negative – how does that correlate to food production? Particularly in the US, Canada and Russia?
I’m just wondering because winter arrived early last year and spring has sprung later this year – presumably shortening the growing season. If this does become a trend that lasts a decade or two – as even AGW supproters seem to be admitting – are we going to find it a struggle to feed 6 billion people?
Bill Marsh (08:54:09) :
Pamela Gray,
I think a Hatch Act violation would be tough to prove, even though I personally think he is violating the act by allowing himself to be identified as a NASA Scientist at these rallies, which is probably why it isn’t being pursued.
I think there may be some other regulations he has to be running afoul of. I can’t see any federal employee being allowed to travel to another country, whether on personal leave or official travel, and encourage it’s citizens to violate the laws of that country.
Which UK laws is Hansen urging British citizens to break? The Hatch Act covers partisan political activity in the USA, in any case he would be allowed under that act to “attend and be active at political rallies and meetings”.
Yeah, right, and when we stop the democratic process how do we check CO2 output is really going down?
Or how do we check GW is reversed? And if not, what measures have to be taken as a next step?
And how do we verify the results?
This guy is so pre 1989!!!
@ur momisugly Katherine (08:42:34) :
James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa
I like that. They demoted him from “scientist” to “modeller”. =)
But they misspelled “meddler”
I’m not voting in the poll because there is no option of voting “No; it would be a tactical error to give him more free time and less supervision”.
I think if Hansen is fired, he’ll become a martyr for the AGW proponents. They’ll use his firing to take everyone’s eyes off the ball, and shift to a discussion of how the deniers are trying to squelch debate. (e.g., see Luis Dias’s points above)
In my view, it’s always better to counter stupid speech with rational, properly articulated argument. And so it is with Hansen. He gives skeptics almost unlimited opportunity to counter his sillines with logic. I say leave him to his soapbox. He’s doing the AGW crowd more harm than good.
This is too easy, but . . .
That photo of him makes it look like he has his head in the clouds. Are those water vapor or CO2 clouds? It also appears he is looking down on us.
REPLY: It is the photo that went with the article, at least he’s smiling. – Anthony
The following is a link for those who are interested in studying the histoy of the green movement:
http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/germany/sp001630/peter.html
Hansens superior needs to give him a project to work on. Give him something to do besides run around the world. Who allows this guy to do such things?
OT, but interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_complex_(self-concept)
“(A) Messiah complex is a state in which the individual believes themselves to be, or destined to become, the saviour of the particular field, a group, an event, a time period, or in an extreme scenario, the world.”
Ron de Haan (08:25:13) :
When Dr. Hansen spoke at the US Mensa Annual Colloquium He stated quite clearly that he was opposed to a cap and trade tax. He also stated quite clearly that he was in favor of a CO2 tax, but with the proceeds going back to American families, with an amount commensurate with family size. That way it would encourage conservation and further reward them with the penalty of the greater fuel users.
Obama et al want the money to pay for all the stimulus and bailout packages and provide money for more spending.
Either way it’s appalling to this Libertarian’s way of thought, but Hanson’s
proposal is less bad.
Also, he had a mostly adequate disclaimer that his presentation was his
own personal view and not NASA/GISS.
This is funny….
“The famously cold winter of 1962/63 is now expected to occur about once every 1,000 years or more, compared with approximately every 100 to 200 years before 1850.”
Wow, we have some serious new ability to determine weather over a thousand years now? Amazing!
Forget the Hatch act. He’s a federal employee; that means he took an oath to defend the Constitution. Either he is pointing at the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, in which case that is absolutely still part of “Democracy”, or he is talking about something else more sinister that is in contravention of his oath.
Tell us which it is, James. . . .
In my opinion, Hansen causes NASA’s image to look very poor. I would find myself questioning anything they do if they allow Hansen to run roughshod like a loose cannon ball on the deck of the ship.