Daryl Hannah, scientist arrested at W.Va. mine protest
SUNDIAL, W.Va. (AP) — More than two dozen people — including actress Daryl Hannah and NASA climate scientist James Hansen — were arrested Tuesday in the latest protest in a growing civil disobedience campaign against mountaintop removal in Southern West Virginia.
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State Police said about 30 people were charged Tuesday afternoon after they blocked State Route 3 near a Massey Energy subsidiary’s coal processing plant in Raleigh County.
Full AP story here
In a statement distributed by the Rainforest Action Network, whose executive director was also arrested, Dr. Hansen said:
I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen. Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient. Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished.
No Jimbo, you are an activist and advocate for a cause.
Note to NASA: Now can you fire this guy?
Meanwhile, back at the RealClimate ranch today, the sound of crickets…
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I don’t want it to sound like I don’t care about the environment because I do, but, these mines are very small. We should not go overboard and act like the world is being damaged from these mines.
If someone has an alternative to coal that can be used now please tell us about it now.
“At a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe,” he said
POTUS- said that.
Fiscal Challenges – Created by whom- The Carbonistas of an Energy Economy or the Promises of the Ponzists?
Legislative Payers-The enemy of the people who clothe, employ, transport and house us or those that simply legislate to rake the table?
Dangerous Carbon- is that the unrecognised oxymoron of the scientific illiterati or merely the twitterings of moronic monologues?
Contaminate the water we drink+pollute the air we breathe- Neither is palatable and wrt CO2, neither imay be relevant – Spend Trillions in fighting a non-enemy- and thus neglect real-foes, may make an uncomfortable read in times to come.
Sir, You are a leader, an inspiration to all. I know, as you do, that you are not a Scientist. Not a problem- but, for the sake of posterity – Ask yourself one question- Can I really trust these Guys?
[snip, not because of the political bent, but that conversation leads too far off topic.] ~ ctm
timetochooseagain (15:57:02) :
Aubs-It’s called the Hatch Act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_Act_of_1939
As a NASA employee, by acting as an advocate, he is in violation of it. He has been in violation of it at least since he campaigned for John Kerry. Rules are rules, the law is the law and it applies to everyone (in this case civil servants) and the law says he should be out of a job.
The Bush administration didn’t dare touch him given all the “Censorship” whining from other perfectly legal oversight of him. So now who expects the new administration to do so? One would certainly hope that enforcement of the law by the executive would be beyond politics, but this isn’t the case, at least since Jackson expelled the Cherokee.
“Judge Marshall has made his decision-now let him enforce it.”
It is not a violation of the Hatch Act to campaign for someone. The prohibitions are that you can not campaign during work hours or with Gov. funding. You cannot campaign at work and you cannot solicit funds for campaigns except for a limited rule for Union workers soliciting from other Union workers. Hansen is in his rights to campaign and protest as he likes as long as he does not claim to be doing so as a NASA employee.
This is not about mountain-top mining. This is about global warming.
Hansen has not written any papers or climate models about mountain-top mining.
When he is done with this protest, he will be going to protest at your local coal-fired power plant and then to your local oil refinery and then to your local natural gas company and then to your local cement factory and then to your local fertilizer distributor. Then he will want to restrict your vehicle travel and your computer usage and your air conditioner and how your food is produced.
And then …
This doesn’t stop here.
Anything that produces GHGs (CO2, CH4, N2O, CFCs, HCFCs) will be the subject of protests in the years ahead. If you earn a living from (well anything at all), you will be the subject of protests to shut you down in the future (as long as the science is settled).
Ron House (18:08:56) : ‘rehabilitation’ that simply does not restore the productivity of the land nor its usefulness for wild animals living in a natural habitat.
Following this reasoning we can’t build cities anymore either. What happened to all the natural animal habitat that was lost where New York City now sits? No matter where humans live, or have lived, animals are expelled from their habitats. This coal mine, and all other mining, is the same.
If there is an alternative to cities and coal let us know about it now.
They need a Hatch Act in the EU.
The EU actually pays environmental groups to LOBBY the EU.
And yes, you read that right.
Locri (17:44:50) :
RoyFOMR, Jim HAnsen has nothing to do with Jim HEnsen (of Muppet Fame). Sorry if you were joking, but I wanted to make sure no one actually thought the same wonderful person who brought the muppets to life has anything to do with a NASA scientist (well, at least someone who claims to be one, I should say).
Especially since Hensen has been dead for almost 20 years now, RIP.
Locri, You’re right on three counts at least. One, I was joking. Two, Mr HEnsen was a genius. Three, Amen and God rest his soul.
In my defense, if I have one- albeit in seeming bad taste, it was the ‘string-pulling’ and role-reversal that Mr J. HAnsen has undergone that I wanted to bring into parody. I would like to think that Jim Hensen would have appreciated the irony.
No disrespect was intended to our joint hero- I’m fairly sure you didn’t take it that way- but, if anyone did, I unreservedly apologise.
At a time of great fiscal challenges? We can’t afford to process them, or give them free press. Break out the wood shampoo, or introduce them to Mister Clickity. Deport them to the Kuril Islands, and have ’em protest Mother Nature’s ravaging of mountain tops.
I think when someone advertises that they are going to create civil disruption, there’s gotta be a different way to process the situation. Mr. Hansen needs to improve our alternative energy options instead of protesting. What exactly does he expect the rest of us to do without coal? Blocking innocent people trying to do their daily activities??? Activists, blech.
timetochooseagain says:
Wally has already pointed out that you misinterpretted the Hatch act. However, you are also incorrect in regards to the “perfectly legal oversight” of him. The NASA inspector general report () concluded:
In my previous post, I forgot to insert the link to the PDF of the inspector general’s report: http://oig.nasa.gov/investigations/OI_STI_Summary.pdf
RoyFOMR (17:13:23) :
Przemysław, we have a problem. These guys fight dirty, their opinions are infinitely defensible against logic, empirical observations and appeals to reason. Hubristic certainties and self-aggrandizement- given the stakes involved- trump honesty.
I know. But it just happens that those who should be despised for what they did are becoming celeb persons, then leaders of many wacko movements, like Hanoi Jane. Just recently I have seen her mug on TV ad here in Poland. Perhaps Mr Hansen aims at Senate post? Who knows. Instead of being spit at he will represent the Nation. That’s the way the world goes on, not only “American world”.
I beg your pardon but I think you lose. The U.S. is on decline path – Beltway elites stopped listen to or pay attention to the voters’ voices many years ago. The present Socialist Regime in Washington will pass the damn Climate Bill without asking anyone. IT IS ALL ABOUT the DARNED MONEY! Cap’n’Trade is at stake! Zillions of bucks for elitists’ vaults! The Dems are not stupid, why not to grab the chance to earn money-for-nothing and according to law? Only bloody riots could force them back. And even that possibility was processed and preparations were made.
U.S. Republics turned to “democracy” some time before, now she hit the bottom turning into “tyrrany of democracy”. Mr Hansen wants to roost his chicken in this mess. And he will do it whether you will discuss his deeds for one day or for a full month. It will change nothing, that’s why I wrote my words – it’s simply a waste of time to ponder Mr Hansen’s behavior.
Best regards
Wally: There is similar legislation in Canada, even a little broader.
David Suzuki must state, in most public engagements, that he is there as a private citizen, and not in any capacity for his Suzuki Foundation.
Otherwise, his Foundation would suffer the same fate as Greenpeace, and be taken off tax-exempt status, and be officially labeled a Lobbying Group.
Dave Wendt,
There is no campaign to remove Jimbo Lysneko Hansen from office. If you wish to launch one, get organized and go ahead. Problem is, this “man”, this “government employee”, this “public servant”, this “scientist”, this NASA “employee”, has an agenda and is using his bureaucratic office in tre US government to further it. This is illegal. It is up to US citizens to have him charged for violations of whatever acts apply in the US,
Given the observed cooling of the planet, Dr. Hansen should consider a career change. He may have a more lucrative career in environmental activism.
jules (15:33:29) :
> people who ask to fire people for no other reason than that those people are having an opinion are a threat to democracy
Here are some links:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/03/24/guardian-headline-leading-climate-scientist-democratic-process-isnt-working/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/03/02/jim-hansens-newfound-peers-at-the-capitol-climate-action/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/02/15/hansen-on-death-trains-and-coal-and-co2/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/10/note-to-nasa-fire-dr-james-hansen-now/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/08/co2-less-coal-power-plant-draws-green-ire-anyway/
Joel,
My respect for you, for what it’s worth, rises with every post you make. One day, I may even allow you to buy me a pint! Seriously, you come over as a really nice guy.
RSVP- not needed – I’m just giving credit where due.
Perhaps when the coal is exhausted the residents of the area could rework the mine into some thing like this.
Przemysław Pawełczyk (18:46:22) :
Darn it, I hope you’re wrong and I still hold on, however weakly, to the possibility that both Jane and John Doe are capable of locating the BS-detector, on-switch of their remote control and pushing downwards!
For information regarding reclamation of surface mined land, look at the Kentucky Elk restoration project. Former MTR lands have been reclaimed with native grasses and now have the largest elk population east of the Mississippi River. Other wildlife, too, have flourished. I don’t believe we will ever see Mr. Hansen or Ms. Hannah in this beautiful area for any photo ops, lest it be to protest an elk hunt (now required to maintain an ever growing herd).
http://www.trailsrus.com/elk/
Mmm, mountain top stripping – so, shall we protest when Mt. St. Helens blows it stack? What about Pinatubo? (etc. etc.)
“What do we want – no more volcanoes; when do we want it? Boom, arrghh, thud.”
Mountain top removal ain’t pretty it’s true but you could argue, for instance, that here in old blighty we have scarred the landscape over the past several hundred years; turning once pristine forests (lovely CO2 absorbers) into nasty cultivated land; thus destroying millenia of nature’s work – that’d be England’s green and pleasant land gone then.
What about the vast swathes of land given over to urbanisation, far greater in area than any one mountain summit; oh wait, no, that’s ok because we live there…
The man should be sacked. I used to work for HMG and if I’d been involved in anything like this I’d have been “binned” – esp. if arrested, whatever the motivation / justification.
Cheers
Mark
Cap and Tax will be voted on in the House on Friday. Looks like the Demos have their votes lined up.
But we can all relax now because “a new EPA analysis showed that it would raise household energy costs on average only an extra $80 to $111 a year.”
If any of you think that Hansen would be fired by this administration if he doesn’t kill somebody are dreaming.
since the start of human history, we have had our work tied to mining. when will it end? when will people realize that there more to be gained by NOT mining?
The arc of this prophet will not be pretty.