There’s not a whole lot I can say about this, except that I’m looking forward to his retirement soon. Then, he can speak as a “private citizen” as much as he wants.
Here’s the full story.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/06/nasa-scientist-climate-change?newsfeed=true
Related articles
- Gore, Hansen, Trenberth to make Antarctic PR expedition (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Why I must speak out on climate change: James Hansen at TED2012 (junkscience.com)
- NASA’s Hansen tries to tell Slovenia not to build a power plant (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Hey Hansen! Where’s The Beef?
“We’re handing them a climate system which is potentially out of their control”.
If this loon believes we could control the climate he needs help and medication, reading between the lines its clear he has become infected with the desire to control humanity. Its clear Hansen is just another petty tyrant unable to control his inner most desire for authority of the lives of others, just one of the little Napoleons humanity has been cursed with since we climbed out of the trees. And as for future generations? We would be doing them more favours by supplying them with a sound industrial base itself supplied with cheap plentiful and reliable energy resources from which they themselves can add to and improve over their own life spans.
Think if the Luddites had gotten their way and no industrial revolution had occurred, all the wonderful miracles of an industrial society denied to us in this age, in fact Hansen is simply a modern Luddite and for the sake of future generations he should be treated as such. Future generations really would curse us if we listened the ravings of jumped up little Napoleons like Hansen and his comrades. Let us hope and pray that the likes of Hansen fail and become the laughing stocks of the future generations to come.
I’ll match his slavery and raise him a genocide – every government and private dollar wasted because of his fraudulent record keeping is a dollar not available to supply clean water to the truly needy in the world or to develop or provide medicine to save others. Someone needs to estimate the number of deaths caused by the mis-allocation of capital caused by Hansen.
Sunset, excellent pic, maybe we should call him Chairman Hansen.
On par with Slavery?
Sweet jeeebus, slavery was a quicky par 3. Now your Climate Change is like slavery, capitalism and general snapage all rolled into one mother of a bitch of a dawg-leg par 5.
I wonder what he is going to do about the hundreds of volcanoes around the world?
This makes me very angry. I could keep writing but I doubt the mods would allow the comment through.
It looks like the sceptics’ Photoshop skills are catching up!
I don’t know why the mainstream media gives this idiot publicity… oh, wait, the mainstream media is just as nutty as Hansen. Scaremongering stories makes money.
To comment about a non existing problem means to keep it alive, like a phantom.
R.I.P. (Requiescat in pace) Global Warming/Climate Change/Sustainability.
What on earth has possessed the Guardian to provide a public forum to Jim Hansen, a man who is clearly quite insane?
Um, isn’t hurting future generations by forcing them to not use the results of the human mind, that give food, shelter, mobility, good materials, etc. an immoral behaviour?
He is headed in the direction of people who directly harm their children to protect them from something they are paranoid about.
Kestrel says:
April 7, 2012 at 10:13 am
“…Hansen does appreciate that (for example) the half-life of radiation from cesium at Fukushima is far shorter than the half-life of AGW from CO2. Although other folks may differ, Hansen’s analysis seems rational, moral, and factually solid to me.”
Wrong on both counts.
CO2 persistence is very short, only 5 – 10 years. If more CO2 was a problem, which it is not, then by reducing CO2 emissions, the higher CO2 concentration would be gobbled up by the expanding biosphere in short order. But of course, more CO2 is not a problem, except in the deranged minds of the scientifically ignorant.
And anyone who believes that Hansen’s position is “moral” has no moral compass of his own. Every proposed action by Hansen would be to the detriment of the poorest among us. I don’t see Hansen opening his wallet to help them, although he could easily afford to take a few dozen senior citizens on low fixed incomes under his wing, and pay their fast rising electric bills.
But he won’t. Hansen is just a scold, a crank, and a hypocrite. He has no redeeming features.
Hansen is repeating history:
— distant past —
(1) scientists observe increased rate of lung cancer
(2) smoking confirmed as the cause
(3) sale of tobacco regulated to diminish risk
— more recent past —
(1) scientists observe decrease in planetary ozone
(2) fluorocarbons confirmed as the cause
(3) sale of fluorocarbons regulated to diminish risk
— present —
(1) scientists observe collapse of bee populations
(2) imidacloprid pesticide confirmed as the cause
(3) sales of imidacloprid-class pesticides (soon to be) regulated to diminish risk
— decadal future —
(1) scientists observe increase in male autism
(2) [pesticide?] confirmed as the cause (?)
(3) sale of [pesticide?] regulated to diminish risk (?)
— centeniall future —
(1) scientists observe increase in planetary temperature
(2) CO2 confirmed as the cause.
(3) sale of CO2 is regulated to diminish risk
——————
Bottom Line: History teaches that scientists like James Hansen often are speaking common sense about a common class of problems … even when their truths are socially inconvenient — or even frightening — and their solutions require market regulation.
I thought this was pretty obvious as they already have climate reparations being demanded.
Ned Borh says:
April 7, 2012 at 8:07 am
…what Hansen now is seeking to establish is simply this:
(1) *IF* Hansen’s predictions are confirmed …
(2) *THEN* serious moral problems must be faced.
The common sense fact is, Hansen is completely correct to argue this. And needless to say, it is very largely fear of (2) that motivates many folks to argue against (1).
The common sense fact is, Hansen knows that the louder and more outrageous a con artist’s claims, the more eager the gullible are to accept them.
“R. Shearer says:
April 7, 2012 at 10:39 am
It looks like the sceptics’ Photoshop skills are catching up!”
To make sure everyone who sees the photoshopped cartoons at my climate skeptic site understand that I did NOT make these photoshopped cartoons.
They were found in various places on the internet and copy posted to my forums cartoon section.Some of then are linked back to the source such as Josh’s cartoons blog.
There is no global warming.. how many times do we have to repeat this? The Hansen, Mann etc ideas are dead but should be keep alive by them to self destruct.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_March_2012.png
So far the sinusoidal shape predicted by RS is spot on just like DA’s solar temps predictions LOL
Hey Janet, you forgot that blood-letting was the medical treatment of choice for over two thousand years and everything revolved around the earth.
Cheers
James Hansen is the polar opposite of William Wilberforce.
Wilberforce dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire – and finally succeeded, as depicted in the movie Amazing Grace
By calling for a worldwide tax, James Hansen – in the name of the public good – effectively seeks to enslave everyone under a dictatorial global government.
Wilberforce invested his inheritance to free others. Hansen takes public funds to enslave them.
In Blue Planet in Green Shakles, the late President Vaclav Havel laid out the stark challenge of preserving freedom or submitting to environmental tyranny. See: President Vaclav Klaus: Climate Control or Freedom? Havel strove to preserve freedom. Hansen works to destroy it – in the name of utopian environmentalism.
Whom will you emulate?
Whose goal will survive? Freedom or Tyranny?
Janet Goudahl says:
April 7, 2012 at 10:47 am
Bottom Line: History teaches that scientists like James Hansen often are speaking common sense about a common class of problems … even when their truths are socially inconvenient — or even frightening — and their solutions require market regulation.
You are making the entirely unwarranted assumption that Hansen is speaking the truth.
Kestrel says:
April 7, 2012 at 10:13 am
“Yet Hansen does appreciate that (for example) the half-life of radiation from cesium at Fukushima is far shorter than the half-life of AGW from CO2.”
No he doesn’t; he believes that CO2 leads to a positive feedback loop via water vapor, turning Earth into something hot like Venus. There is therefore no “half-life of AGW from CO2.”; it is in his believes a one way trip to a runaway feedback. Removing the CO2 after it has initiated this runaway feedback would not make enough of a difference to flip the system back.
Calling that a “rational analysis”, which you do, is frankly ludicrous, but if I have mischaracterized his opinion, point me to utterances by him where he mentions “the half-life of AGW”.
Kestel obviously doesn’t know much about science. A half-life of an isotope is fixed for that atom. The half-life of a chemical species is dependent on reaction conditions that are highly variable.
David L. Hagen says:
April 7, 2012 at 11:14 am
“In Blue Planet in Green Shakles, the late President Vaclav Havel laid out the stark challenge of preserving freedom or submitting to environmental tyranny. See: President Vaclav Klaus: Climate Control or Freedom? Havel strove to preserve freedom. Hansen works to destroy it – in the name of utopian environmentalism.”
“Blue Planet in Green Shackles” was written by Vaclav Klaus, and he is alive and well.
Great lecture by him:
The Guardian should be ashamed of this article if no other reason than for lowering themselves to Bbc levels of editing. They even have a photo credit from the Ap, and refer to Co2 in the story, cannot they be consistent? The Uk education system must be in shambles to allow such an execrable error to be made.
I wrote this letter back in 2008 and Griffin is now retired, but the sentiment is apparently timeless.
Dr. Michael Griffin June 24, 2008
NASA Headquarters
Suite 5K39
Washington, DC 20546-0001
Dear Dr. Griffin.
I am writing today to urge you to terminate the services of Dr. James E. Hansen. Dr. Hansen is not simply an embarrassment and blemish on the reputation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; he is responsible for great harm to the credibility of science. Worse than that, as the world cools (due mainly to reduced solar activity), we will find that his repeated, absurd warnings about human-caused global warming leads many to complacency when a more proper course of action would be preparing for cooling and all it carries with it, i.e. compressed food-producing latitudes and shorter growing seasons.
I have no idea what benefit the public gets from the employment of Dr. Hansen, but I doubt that “projecting humans’ potential impacts on climate” is part of his legitimate job description or a role that justifies the consumption of tax dollars.
Again, please terminate the services of Dr. Hansen. The soapbox he enjoys at tax-payer’s expense must be removed.
Thank you very much for the consideration of my plea.
Best regards;
Ken Coffman