Patrick J. MICHAELS: China-style dictatorship of climatologists
NASA’s Hansen prefers rule by decree to fight ‘global warming’
Excerpts: From the Washington Times Monday, January 17, 2011
November’s election made it quite clear that the people of the United States do not want to radically change our society in the name of global warming. Pretty much every close House race went to the Republicans, while the Democrats won all the Senate squeakers. The difference? The House on June 26, 2009, passed a bill limiting carbon-dioxide emissions and getting into just about every aspect of our lives. The Senate did nothing of the sort.
The nation’s most prominent publicly funded climatologist is officially angry about this, blaming democracy and citing the Chinese government as the “best hope” to save the world from global warming. He also wants an economic boycott of the U.S. sufficient to bend us to China’s will.
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According to Mr. Hansen, compared to China, we are “the barbarians” with a “fossil-money- ‘democracy’ that now rules the roost,” making it impossible to legislate effectively on climate change. Unlike us, the Chinese are enlightened, unfettered by pesky elections. Here’s what he blogged on Nov. 24:
“I have the impression that Chinese leadership takes a long view, perhaps because of the long history of their culture, in contrast to the West with its short election cycles. At the same time, China has the capacity to implement policy decisions rapidly. The leaders seem to seek the best technical information and do not brand as a hoax that which is inconvenient.”
Read the whole story at the Washington Times
h/t to Leif Svalgaard
I want him fired! Americans should demand he be fired.
He is espousing taking away or civil rights and contradicting the US Constitution
“The Chinese government has killed more people on this planet than any other.
Supporting China is pure evil.”
It would be a near impossibility that you don’t have, in your possession, something made in China. You are, unless that is not the case, supporting China, and as such would be, by your own definition, pure evil. The same, undoubtedly, applies to every else here.
Unfortunately, Dr. Hansen is not a scientist anymore. He seems to be an influential political activist with extremely dangerous ideas (just look at the history of any country in the Old World in order to see what happens if ‘finis sanctificat media’). Now he even thinks about his totally unproven CAGW theory as an excuse for authoritarianism.
Most of the people in Hungary used to view the U.S. as a symbol of civil and economic freedoms, don’t let it change in the future.
One can only wonder about the mental state of Dr James Hansen! His concerns about catastrophic man-made global warming, and his obsession with rising CO2 emissions being disastrous for the world as we know it, border on abnormal paranoia.
Every time I try to read something James Hansens has said or written I just get “Mmm Bop” playing in my head. It’s some form of defense mechanism, I’m sure.
“At the same time, China has the capacity to implement policy decisions rapidly.”
There is the dream of Hansen et al. America, you have been warned.
My suggestion is that we locate some village in China who is missing their idiot and book a flight there. Hell, I’ll even kick in for his first class ticket.
I’ve just read Hansen’s full article, ‘The Price of Change’ (written as a private citizen, no less).
He does mention ‘the children’, but only once………………….. 🙂
The Kingsnorth protesters were acquitted following Hansen’s testimony. The Chinese, who Hansen admires so much, are opening a new power-station the size of Kingsnorth or larger every four days. Strangely, Hansen failed to mention this in his piece.
The author of the Times article clearly doesn’t like Hansen. But, Cancun indicated that the US, Japan, China and several other countries aren’t willing to support Kyoto. I’m not sure where the author got the idea that China is a big fan of the CAGW meme.
His [Hansen’s] forecasts of climatic change for nearly the last quarter-century are fantasy, as is his notion that dictators are better than democracy and that our country should be bullied into submission.
For those of you who haven’t seen the following related article by Jim Hansen, please read it:
“The Price of Change” by Jim Hansen
In this article (intended for a Chinese audience in a Chinese newspaper) makes the following predictions:
* Sea levels will eventually rise 25 meters above today’s levels when CO2 level reach 400 ppm in 2016.
* Sea levels will further rise to 75 meters when we reach 550 ppm.
* Climate zones are shifting 50-60 km per decade, which will eventually lead to mass extinctions of animals and plants.
* Increasing CO2 to 550 ppm by burning fossil fuels will lead to a “desolate, ice-free planet…”
* “Transition to the ice-free state will be chaotic and out of humanity’s control…”
I’ll leave it to others to comment of the likelihood of these claims…
Right from the start Hansen was wrong.
He came in from the cold of astrophysics where he had imagined that Venus has a runaway global warming problem that results from its CO2 atmosphere. However a tiny piece of information makes nonsense of that:
Probes measuring the energy output from Venus (I’m searching for the source data, either NASA Pioneers or Russia Venera) found that Venus is emitting more energy than reaches it from the Sun.
Therefore it has a significant internal heat source. Therefore, of course it’s hot. No GHG effect can cause emitted energy to exceed incoming energy. No GHG effect is needed to explain the heat – even if it is a contributory factor.
Why no word from Hansen on this? Cynically, do higher powers want this cannon to stay loose? Hi boss Theon disowned him – but had no power apparently to get him sacked.
Hansen is following in a long line of left wing fellow travellers. Similar people denied that Stalin was slaughtering millions. They deny that China has one of the worst human rights records on record or that after Tianemen Square dozens of activists have simply disappeared. The list is endless.
Just to emphasise earlier comments. China is currently responsible for nearly 50% of global CO2 emissions from burning coal. A further 400GW of coal fired power stations are planned by 2020 – that is 60 times the total UK generating capacity from all sources. How long will this federal funded fanatic be allowed to stay on the payroll. He is being paid as a scientist not a political lobbyist.
If he had sunglasses he would look like Agent Smith from the Matrix. He must be his real world megalomaniac brother.
TomMikePat says: “Interesting piece, this! Mr. Michaels brings this to our attention on Benjamin Franklin’s birthday in 1706. Mr. Franklin famously compared Monarchy, the totalitarian governmental form of his time, with the democratic republic form he helped to establish.”
Technically, using “monarchy” in its correct sense, the US has a monarch albeit elected. (Which is in fact the same of the UK – because we also have an elected monarch but most people don’t vote as no one has told them they can!)
But seriously, the constitution of the US was based on the Roman Republic and not the greek Demokratia, and it’s only an absurd twist of fate that you now call yourself “democratic” when originally “democrat” (in greece) was coined to refer to left-wing yokel farmers who had taken over government in a left-wing coop and ousted the ruling right-wing political elite. The equivalent today would be factory workers ousting the fat-cat politicians from congress out of office!
Anyway, back to the US, the constitutional founders intended to model their constitution on the original Roman republic (and UK) combining the three elements:
Monarchy:- president
Oligarchy: senate
democracy: House
It’s only a quirk of fate that you call yourself a democracy (which you are not) … in short, “democracy” meant “giving ordinary people political rights” (i.e. the demos), the democratic movement became a movement for ordinary people to have a say in government (hence the communists call themselves democrats – and the left in the US call themselves democrat), this then became a movement to give ordinary people the vote, and then “democratic” became synonomous, not with a government by ordinary people as in the original sense … but government by one or other political elite following a vote of the “demos” … democratic meant “democratically elected oligarchy”.
It was only at the time of Ronald Reagen/Thatcher that the term “democracy” was embraced by the right taking this ultra-left term and making a right-wing term meaning: “an electoral system whereby arabs with oil can be bought by US oil corps”
And if you want to know the truth, the greeks thought elections were undemocratic because they were just bought by the rich and powerful, so they preferred jury selection to the panels that ran the governent (except the army and waterworks).
So, nothing much has changed, elections in the US are still undemocratic!
… the correct term for what Hansen espouses is tyranny!
Anthony, I send deep appreciation for your indefatigable pursuit of truth in blog journalism, about the only investigative journalism that we have in the U.S. I have sent my quarterly subscription (“donation”, but I consider it more than that). Hope many others do the same. Many more years of success to you!
Re: American investigative journalism. Does anyone know the numbers, e.g., the (declining, I think) readership of mainstream print newspapers and magazines? Anthony’s attractive, informative, and hard-hitting style offers one of the best possibilities for re-engaging and re-educating a large public, and not only an American one.
I agree with Richard S. Courtney. It is surely only a matter of time before we in the UK sink into the abyss, & somebody actually gets killed in one of these mindless protests!
James Hansen has well & truly nailed his “colour” to the mast. James Lovelock ditto. & others too. When one says one has to “suspend” democracy to fight cilmate change, who does the suspending & for how long is it to be suspended? 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years, for ever? BTW, energy costs soaring in the UK, Unions getting restless, inflation on the up, retail prices rising. Looking all set for a Winter of Discontent by the Autumn. AND the PDREU/UESR want us to bail out the Euro with money we don’t have. Marvellous, just marvellous!
Let’s just rip up Hansen’s passport and deport him to China for unAmerican activities. The only problem might be that they might not want him either. Why not let him chose the island of his choice and assign him to watching for sea level rise? Give him a whistle he can blow when he sees some. We will, thus, never hear from him again.
My choice for quote of the week.
Hansen is of course correct that democracies have a problem making short term sacrifices to deal with long-term problems. The deficit, anyone?
He fails, tho, in thinking that benevolent dictatorship is the answer –there you merely exchange a short-term solution for an even greater long-term problem. And of course fails again in holding up China as the beau ideal of a benevolent dictatorship.
Well, Hansen’s big fan, Obama, is busy bowing down to China, so I guess our president agrees with Hansen on politics as well as climate alarmism.
Hansen’s comments may cause a rise in sales of “The Coercive Utopians” (1984).
How and Why is Mr. Hansen still in his current job………..and why are WE still paying him ??????????
There seems to be some kind of God Complex running through Climate Science at the moment. Even on Judith Curry’s website, you get threads posted about what climate scientists can do to solve problem X, including geo-political, globalisation related issues that are generally [snip] all to do with climate! Actually, it’s starting to get very annoying….