‘We don’t have a leader who is able to grasp [the issue] and say what is really needed. Instead we are trying to continue business as usual,’ say James Hansen. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
The scientist who convinced the world to take notice of the looming danger of global warming says it would be better for the planet and for future generations if next week’s Copenhagen climate change summit ended in collapse.
In an interview with the Guardian, James Hansen, the world’s pre-eminent climate scientist, said any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch.
“I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it’s a disaster track,” said Hansen, who heads the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
“The whole approach is so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation. If it is going to be the Kyoto-type thing then [people] will spend years trying to determine exactly what that means.” He was speaking as progress towards a deal in Copenhagen received a boost today, with India revealing a target to curb its carbon emissions. All four of the major emitters – the US, China, EU and India – have now tabled offers on emissions, although the equally vexed issue of funding for developing nations to deal with global warming remains deadlocked.
Hansen, in repeated appearances before Congress beginning in 1989, has done more than any other scientist to educate politicians about the causes of global warming and to prod them into action to avoid its most catastrophic consequences. But he is vehemently opposed to the carbon market schemes – in which permits to pollute are bought and sold – which are seen by the EU and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy.
Read the entire article here at the Guardian:
Copenhagen climate change talks must fail, says top scientist
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That’s right Jimmy boy, claim victory win or lose!
Wow, I never thought the day would come when I’d find myself in agreement with James Hansen!
“May the good fairy what sits in the sky grant yer ev’ry wish.” — Spam, in Bored of the Rings
I agree with him.
Damage limitation.
Not much else he can say since it will produce nothing of any substance now that the developing economies, led by China, have produced their own message for the first world nations that roughly translates into english as a two fingered gesture of anglo-saxon origin
Surely a world turned upside down.
Copenhagen will be a complete success in my book. The man-made global warming theory will die and the deniers that claim climate change is not man-made will win.
OK, did Al Gore stop sending him his monthly stipend?
Just wondering.
“May the good fairy what sits in the sky grant yer ev’ry wish.” — Spam, in Bored of the Rings
“Insult not the White Wizard, for I have many powers. Here, pick a card. Any card.”
– ibid
“the world’s pre-eminent climate scientist” In the sense that ‘climate-scientist’ is rapidly becoming a synonym for incompetent hack or worse then perhaps he is. World’s preeminent chicken little would perhaps be more accurate.
Lord Monckton is particular scathing of his failed predictions in his comprehensive document on Climategate.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/originals/Monckton-Caught%20Green-Handed%20Climategate%20Scandal.pdf
Obviously Hansen knows how to pay the media game. It doesn’t matter how many ridiculous and failed predictions you made in the past. You will never be called to account. What gets the headlines is the next prediction of global doom.
At least he sees the nonsense of selling indulgencies.
It may be Jimmy doesnt want further exposure to his own lies. Like proclaiming Oct 08 the warmest month ever when using September data from Russia, or saying the 90’s were the hottest decade when he forgot (conveniently) that his own data showed the 30’s were as hot or hotter. Or maybe even someone would dig up the fact that this totally unbiased scientist was a research assistant in the 70’s on a paper that purported to show that man’s use of fossil fuel was responsible for
(ta-da) the coming ice age! Brrrrr.
Note the clear skies in the background, with a few clouds. The photo of him would have been much more effective if he’d been standing in front of a large parabolic cooling tower at a nuclear power plant that was spewing vast amounts of water vapor (greenhouse gas) into the air.
Hansen and the Sceptics. What strange bedfellows.
As the old saying goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
Welcome Jim.
JT
“• James Hansen’s book Storms of My Grandchildren is published by Bloomsbury, £18.99”
He differs only over the method of implementation of tax, not the underlying issues.
Still, another talking point in the MSM in the run up to Copenhagen… it even got a mention at the end of BBC’s Newsnight tonight when they covered tomorrow’s front pages.
While I don’t agree with James Hansen 99.99% of the time – on this point he is 100% correct. Copenhagen should fail….for many reasons.
Even if “Global Warming” was the problem the faithful (because it is nothing more than a faith-based cult at this point) claim it is, Copenhagen would do absolutely zero (in fact less than zero given the amount of wasted time, paper, money and energy already devoted to the process) to solve it.
Its the equivalent of paying $1000 extra a year on car insurance, to prevent your house from being infested with termites.
Obama “believes” the scientists who’ve been caught lying: “We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this [global warming] is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way and that’s what I intend my administration to do.”
http://pathstoknowledge.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/obama-believes-the-scientists/
As I understand it, this is the attitude that Hansen has consistently taken for a long time. This article does not indicate any change, and should come as no surprise.
I always knew that Hansen was a shill for Shell.
(BTW, where’s my check this month?)
Hansen has always opposed ‘cap and trade’ – he is a ‘carbon tax’ advocate. Along with his support of nuclear energy makes him not always popular with the green crowd.
“The grapes are sour anyway”, said the fox.
I can see the headlines now;
THE DENIERS WIN IN COPENHAGEN
What Jim is really saying is that the whole thing snowballed and got away from him.
He handed it over to the pols, who made a game out of it, and finding in the ranks of scientists those whom they could buy, ran with it.
Hansen needs to be very specific about what he had in mind.
How is this “Shut CopenHagen Down” any different than “Shut all the Coal Plants Down”?
If I caught his drift, anything he does not agree with should be shut down, including dissenting opinion.
Did I miss anything?
Don’t be fooled. Hansen wants a global carbon tax administered by the UN. He’s just objecting to the “offset” part of Carbon Offsets. He would be more than happy to reduce the human footprint on this planet thru whatever means are available.
This appears to be a CYA move by Jimmy, as well as play the media.
I am sure he knows he is culpable.
I think Obama and others who may not really be willing to “understand” the fraud that has been ongoing since the inception of AGW.
The players may just proceed as if they must save the world now.
carry on like this and we’re done for. We’ll be toast. 3 years to go. It’ll all happen after that. Copenhagen must fail thus.
There’s still hope though through direct carbon tax.