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.
…
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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The AGWers could make a huge difference. Just stop uisng energy. Simple. If they’re in the majority that should make a huge difference. Those who advocate population reduction should set an example by reducing the numbers by one immdeiately.
If these people want to lead they should lead by example and do the decent thing.
keep up the good work Anthony. More Agwers pop up here now and don;t they juts say the most amazing things! If this wasn’t such a hugely important issued it would be pretty entertaining.
Lance (14:44:57) :
Boy, Daryl Hannah has really let herself go!
Thanks for the laugh Lance :-)))
Hansen has been a joke ever since the ‘hockey stick’ graph debacle, and it’s been down-hill for him ever since – just like global temperatures.
Like religion, science has been used many times by politicians in the past to manipulate public opinion. The methods of Stalin and Hitler are still being used today as a reason to force through a reduction in fossil fuel consumption and keep energy cost high.
Tom_R: “If James Hansen is willing to be arrested to support his belief in Global Warming, why wouldn’t he also be willing to doctor the GISS data to support that belief?”
How can you compare protesting to doctoring data? Obviously you have not used your freedom of speech to the full extent that you are allowed… or do you live in Iran?
Hansen needs to be fired — badly.
People complaining here about the politics doesn’t seem genuine to me. AGW is leftist politics through its entire core. Even if you try to avoid it you still see it everywhere. Hansen has been screaming about coal plants being death trains while pretending to be a scientist, he is a leftist political advocate who is abusing his scientific credentials to his own advantage.
He would do better now on Al’s advisory board and he should be fired.
Thanks for the article.
Michael Spencer (04:26:52) :
well said.
Not sure about the second para though.
Destroying the American wilderness is no different to the rain forest destruction in other countries. it is WRONG.
James Hansen is willing to put his future on the line for his beliefs. This is admirable. Why was Lord Monkton not there driving the bulldozer at the protestors?
I am truly appalled at some of your responses.
“blochhead (06:06:16) :
How can you compare protesting to doctoring data? Obviously you have not used your freedom of speech to the full extent that you are allowed… or do you live in Iran?”
I’m comparing willful lawbreaking to doctoring of data. If he views his lawbreaking as justified in order to save the world, couldn’t he view data doctoring as justified in order to save the world? Maybe he considers doctoring data as beyond the limit, but how can we really know? What we do know is that he’s willing to step over a legal line in order to promote his beliefs.
Mother Nature removes mountain tops all the time. They are called volcanoes. That humans would help out nature AND benefit mankind should be applauded. Hansen is an out of control ass who should be examined by a mental health professional.
“Note to NASA: Now can you fire this guy?”….
I think you’re correct that Dr. Hansen should be fired.
Given his clear activist position, his firing should immediately be followed by a complete independent review of the Temperature Record maintained by him to determine it’s validity. Only then can it be determined just how off this guy is.
Michael Spencer (04:26:52) :
“The issue here is simple: removing the top of a mountain. Anyone ever seen it? This is exactly analogous to dumping pollutants into rivers.”
Utter rubbish. It is not.
bill (06:08:25) :
Michael Spencer (04:26:52) :
well said.
Not sure about the second para though.
Destroying the American wilderness is no different to the rain forest destruction in other countries. it is WRONG.
James Hansen is willing to put his future on the line for his beliefs. This is admirable. Why was Lord Monkton not there driving the bulldozer at the protestors?
I am truly appalled at some of your responses.
A hilltop (hardly a mountain, please) in W.VA is hardly the “the American wilderness”. The state may have a rep for being hillbilly backward, but not that backward. Some of you must still live in naturally hollowed-out caves, and missed the last 1000 years.
“…putting his future on the line for his beliefs” is only admirable when the cause is just, his future is truly at risk, and his beliefs have the weight of moral truth. He fails on all three counts. For a man in his position of trust, that’s not admirable, that’s an abomination.
As a mammalian ecologist, other than for possible aesthetic reasons, I have no scientific problem with flat-topping a hill. Get over yourselves.
bill and michael spencer are right. i’m not a fan of hansen, but in this case he is right. sorry anthony and et.al, but you are wrong. and take note, that i’m not a warmist. because the protest was not against global warming. it was against ecological damages. i think mr. obama promised not to authorize this type of mining (may be i’m wrong).
excuse me my bad english
One of the greatest liberties that any people can have is the freedom to speak out on matters of conscience. This freedom should be inviolable.
It is important however to remember that freedom comes with responsibility and that although one is at liberty to speak freely, they must also be willing to suffer the consequences if their speech is false, misleading or causes others to come to harm.
While I do not feel that Hansen should be fired, I do think he is knowingly distorts the truth and should answer for this. I am satisfied that he will eventually be shown to be what he is, and will suffer the humiliation that only time can deliver.
PS: I still would like to see Hansen and his Luddite friends dropped off in the middle of nowhere rather than jailed (or fired).
You can listen to an online discussion in WV of the issues and events right now (10:10 am) at http://www.wajr.com/
It is a great statewide radio talk show (called Metronews Talkline) every day from 10:00 to 12:00 noon. Look for “Metronews Talkline With Hoppy Kercheval”.
Bill-aren’t familiar West Virginia.That wilderness has been occupied by
people for at least 12,000 years.Indians and Europeans both.It has been cut, burned,
and bulldozed.The hard wood forests we see in the east are because we quit making ships out of wood.We are the Saudi Arabia of Coal.-Probably at least 500 years worth.
If we get rid of our civilization-we may have to go back to Clipper Ships and Wood fired Steam Locomotives.-If we want to maintain a Low tech civilization….
I suggest you get John Ziggler on this facebook thing…
FireJamesHansenl.com is what we need
Spelling error above
It looks like the debate between Hansen and Blankenship will not happen. They cannot agree on a time.
Ah, but who shall do the ‘independent review’? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? or roughly, “let the fox guard the chicken coop?”
The entire Administration, and most of the Congress, are now marching in lockstep toward the cliff of ‘global warming’. The believers are convinced that Paradise lies at the bottom. The rest are too timid not to go along, or figure they can profit by selling hotdogs to the marchers.
It is time for government to get its fingers out of science, or if that is not possible in this post-WWII era of grantsmanship, for an independent, non-governmental body to be created to review all government science (both agency and grant-supported), and all results. It should be composed of retired scientists, academics, scientists and engineers in business, and laymen with no identifiable axe to grind, other than a devotion to objectivity and the scientific method.
Write your Congressman. Anyone here from Oklahoma? I’ll bet the estimable Sen. Inhofe would be interested.
/Mr Lynn
I believe that when you hire on as a federal employee, you are told that being involved in political activist activities are a firing offence. He is a representative of the U.S. Gov. and is restricted from this kind of activity.
Follow the money
In an interview just published in The Guardian, he states that President Obama has “four years to save the earth.” This latest incarnation of his great climate alarm is mostly based on a projected rise in sea level rise, a scenario that our Chip Knappenberger analyzed critically in his post yesterday.
James Hansen started his little love triangle between himself, Enron and various radical groups long ago.
http://masterresource.org/?p=408
Read about SO2 cap and trade here. enron started it.
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2007/10/enron-and-carbon-trading.html
More on enron’s trading activities and counter traders.
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2009/06/more_enron_and.html
In my company, a senior exec was instrumental in helping enron kick off manufacturing of blades and turbines in California and starting their wind enterprise.
(which is now GE)
Warren buffet now owns the enron gas transmission system formerly known as Internorth.
Northern Natural gas. I had one of their executives as an employee before Enron bought them.
Dr James Hansen ROCKS! He’s one of the brightest, intrepid and down to Earth scientists that NASA employs. The fact that we are burning more coal is awful, the fact that it is spitting out mercury that poisoning the air and the ocean effects all of us. Rock on Dr James!
For those interested, the video of the stunt is on my blog, here…
http://algorelied.com/?p=2274
Is anyone else a bit outraged that he’s doing this on a paid vacation? Paid by American taxpayers that is.
Jim Hansen has this arrangement with the New York Times. Hansen does something newsy and in return the Times prints his name in the paper for him to read. It started a long time ago when Andrew Revkin of the New York Times decided Hansen was going to be his source for an environmental story- since then it’s been a long love affair. … Personally I think Revkin needs a new source. The wheels seem to be falling off the story of Jim Hansen. His life is starting to resemble an episode of the Simpsons. Not to say it all isn’t entertaining but how about something a little more fresh for news pages … How about Monckton! Peer of the realm (hereditary-no less), striding onto the scene, inserting himself into the aftermath of a supreme court case (the state of Massachusetts v. the EPA (quite a story itself and whose comment period has just ended (http://www.regulations.gov))), waving his 50 red flags of scientific fraud, invoking the name of Eisenhower (hero to Europe if not the U.S.) alerting us not to become captives of a “scientific-technological elite” (in Eisenhower’s terms), pulling the pants down off of agency heads and doing it all in the coolest manner and with the most cordial of tones.
Several posters have expressed admiration for a man standing up for his principles. I’m guessing that these same people would, on other occasions, bemoan a man’s inability to graciously acknowledge that he is wrong.
Principles are useful as a temporary guide for one’s life, so that one doesn’t have to philosophize over every mundane decision. They are, however, a complete menace when attempting to understand the world or come to an agreement with other people about what action to take.
Wow. I can’t believe the number of people who want Hansen fired for his opinions and advocacy thereof. He’s not passing himself off as any kind of NASA or government spokesman; what exactly is the problem with his use of his right to free speech?
You don’t like his views? Too bad.