Dr. James Hansen, now no longer on a leash under NASA policy, has started what I expect will be the first of many ugly comments and actions in his new role as activist.
Niall from Canada writes in asking for help from WUWT and the readership:
This Saturday morning Canada’s state broadcaster (the CBC) aired, on their weekly politics & current affairs show “the House”, a 15 min. ‘interview’ with James Hansen, in which he denigrated our Government as “neanderthal” in it’s approach to AGW, and that climate change science is “crystal clear”.
He also angled for a carbon tax (presumably to support his desired global wealth re-distribution scheme). I know you’re a very busy guy, but if you could formally respond in writing to the CBC, and indicate the gross errors Hansen voiced, and also post to your own site, many of us Canadian climate ‘realists’ would be very grateful for your help in exposing this grotesque charlatan.
Att’d is the link for the show, and the address to respond to.
Yours very truly,
Niall from Winnipeg
the Story:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/26/pol-hansen-oliver.html
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CBC, they can force me to fund them, but not to listen.
Certifiable
leftturnandre says:
April 27, 2013 at 3:52 pm
“The reason why moral enterpreneurs are often successful may be explained by the Milgram experiment, in which people were prepared to administer lethal electrical shocks just by the power of authority.”
The wikipedia page says: ” If the teacher asked whether the learner might suffer permanent physical harm, the experimenter replied, “Although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on.” ”
This sounds like the “teacher” did not know that a 450V shock would be lethal; but believed it to be harmless. Indeed the voltage alone does not kill if the current is limited to small values – microamperes.
So, the “teachers” were actually never prepared to administer lethal shocks. I don’t know whether Milgram drew that conclusion but given the setup it would be wrong to do so.
The last recorded Neanderthals went extinct in the Gibralter area about 24,000 yr BP. The whole group lost its woodland-mosaic habitat, ironically, due to global cooling, They were big, smart, often blue-eyed and red haired,speaking people that hunted big animals in ambush with thrusting spears. They had to be strong and tough!. They did not have the missile technology of our ancestors at the time and could not hunt the fauna of the enroaching tundra. Trapped between the mountains and the tundra they went extinct. Hansen displays amazing ignorance and a mean spirit by attempting to cite them as a racist(speciesist) slur.
For those interested,I recommend “Humans Who Went Extinct”;Clive Finlayson; Oxford Uni Press 2009. It is a brilliant dissertation on how changing climates changed habitats and played chance games with the evolution of humans. It all happened before human carbon dioxide emissions were more than 4/5 of 5/8/ of a very small number.
Warm is the fragrance of Cro-Magnon privilege.
Edohiguma says:
April 27, 2013 at 4:18 pm
—
That was an Austrian.
http://planet.infowars.com/weird-news/global-warming-deniers-should-be-sentenced-to-death-richard-parncutt-professor-of-systematic-musicology-university-of-graz-austria-calls-for-death-penalty
Also covered here on WUWT.
Approximately 7% of my DNA is inherited from my Neanderthal ancestors, thus as a member of an ethnic minority I take affront to this disparagement of my forebears.
OK. On the scale of stupid analogies Hansen proposes, he himself looks like a prehominid. Neanderthals, rock on!
I am glad someone took his leash off. Now he does not have to heed the organ grinder that kept him out of trouble. Now he can be a monkey at large with his tin cup. He will probably bite a few hands that feed him before the butterfly nets come out. He has been amusing to watch in a sad sort of way.
Amy Ridenour said on April 27, 2013 at 3:19 pm:
Hey, those laid-back Canucks told Hansen to feel right at home. They asked for it!
garymount says: “That [Richard Parncutt] was an Austrian.”
According to Wankerpedia: “Richard Parncutt (born 24 October 1957 in Melbourne)” Unless there’s a Melbourne in Austria, the bloke’s an Australian.
You probably already read the thread whose link I’ve posted below, but, in case you missed it, in it is some good refutation and exposure of the fiend:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/04/25/canadas-environment-minister-calls-out-jim-hansen/
Jerk Hansen even has his own TAG (on right margin of WUWT pages). I’ve never been so inclined, but try that.
Courage, Niall and all you wonderful, valiant, fighters for truth north of the border. This latest attack is, indeed, distressing, but, General Hansen’s troops are deserting daily and his tactics are those of an army in desperate retreat. He’s just trying to make as much money as he can before the screen says: YOU LOSE. GAME OVER.
I agree with Dr. Gray — we are seeing the “beginning of the end” (or, at least, “the end of the beginning” — Sir W.C.) of the AGW battle in the perennial war between the Liars and the Truthtellers.
VICTORY IS ASSURED!
Paleo haters abound.
Ooook! Kon JIM. Mwhaa! ICE sea.
Dr. James Hansen opened windows night before his testimony to congress in 1988 so the ACs would not work properly next day
Dr. James Hansen made $1.6 million in outside, direct cash income in the past five years (2011)
Dr. James Hansen switched his research interests from Astronomy to Calamastology.
Dr. James Hansen, in 1967, thought that dust made Venus hot.
Dr. James Hansen’s climate model was uses by Rasool & Schneider to predict an ice age in 1971
Dr. James Hansen said the oceans would boil & end up in the atmosphere if we burned all fossil fuels
Dr. James Hansen is an activist scientist having been arrested at least 3 times
Question: Can I trust Dr. James Hansen when it comes to the climate????
The Neanderthals were a dramatic improvement over their predecessors – perhaps the greatest leap forward in human evolution. They had intelligence vastly ahead of their time [brain sizes equal to Homo sapiens of hundreds of kyrs later]. They were able to positively change their environment, enhancing their survivability and lives.
So yes, I’d buy Hansen’s argument.
Give him a break guys ‘n gals. It’s not Jim’s fault that he’s been duped into becoming a ‘useful idiot’.
True, he’s a smart bloke but he’s as naive as a newt when it comes to inhaling vulpine vapours!
I’ve half his IQ (guess that makes me a pretty smart neanderthal) but my BS meter is every bit as good as his – but, thanks to my inferior neuronal connections, I use it more than he needs to.
His crystal clarity about ‘Climate Science’ aka ‘Climate Chaos’ is but a delusion that feeds a messianic fantasy – backed up by dogmatic certainty – that He can save the World.
Strangely enough, I am 100% convinced that he is totally honest – I do not believe he could knowingly lie.
He’s honest. I like him but that does not mean I agree with him
By the way, Dr. James Hansen actually looks like a Neanderthalic Homer Simpson with a hat.
RoyFOMR says:
April 27, 2013 at 5:17 pm
He’s honest. I like him but that does not mean I agree with him
>>>>>
Nope, he is not honest. He is corrupt. He deceives. He promotes himself by slandering the truth. DO NOT be deceived by such perversion of science.
It is my understanding that Hansen is pro-nuclear. If he had any brains and common sense he would simply be a pro-nuclear advocate instead of bashing fossil fuels and pushing the CAGW BS. Nuclear is a technologically superior source of electricity with its greater energy density and, eco-friendliess in terms of emissions (other than CO2). In particular, the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) shows the potential to be one of the safest and lowest cost reactor types, and it produces far less waste than the current generation of reactors. It can also burn up all of the plutonium being produced by the the current reactors and generate electricity with it (which is why I hesitate to call it waste). We have enough thorium here in the U.S. to last us for many centuries, if not a milleniu or more.
If Hansen wants to latch onto and advocate something that would actually be worthwhile, LFTR might be a good place to start. Unfortunately, it would probably mean he would have to clash with the environmental movement which (as I understand it) is mostly anti-nuclear not to mention that fact that it probably knows nothing about LFTR to begin with. While he’s at it, he might also want to consider dispelling the fear of nuclear by enlightening the masses on the the Radation Hormesis Hypothesis and the supporting science behind it which basically states that the low-level nuclear radiation it not a serious threat to human health (except for perhaps young children and infants). He no doubt doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to do any of this though, given that they are all on the same page when it comes to fossil fuels and CAGW.
He truly is a sad and tragically wrong-minded individual.
@DocMartyn
Approximately 7% of my DNA is inherited from my Neanderthal ancestors, thus as a member of an ethnic minority I take affront to this disparagement of my forebears.
Preach it, brother! How long must our people submit to these racist slurs?
leftturnandre says:
April 27, 2013 at 3:52 pm
——————————————————
Another interesting one is the Asch conformity experiments where a group of subjects were given a series of multiple choice questions to answer and “allowed” to change Their answers based on what answer Their “peers” chose . in reality in each group there was only one actual test subject and the rest were “actors” who would deliberately choose wrong answers in concert with each other . 75% of the initial test subjects changed their answers to a wrong one to conform with the group . In later versions of the test It was found that the larger the size of the group of “actors” giving the wrong answers the more likely the test subjects were to change Their responses to a wrong answer as well .
As a fan of and given my Northern European and Central Asian genetics, -he may be an ancestor- I demand an apology for Neanderthal! They weren’t so primitive after all:
http://listverse.com/2009/06/16/top-10-misconceptions-about-neanderthals/
Re: Stanley Milgram’s experiments about obedience to authority, Dirk H. you make a good clarification, for apparently, “the ‘teachers’ were actually never prepared to administer lethal shocks.”
The “teachers” were, nevertheless, willing to inflict GREAT pain (in the film I saw, some of the “learners” were screaming in agony). The emotional trauma of some of the “teachers” was so devastating, that such experiments were banned in the U.S..
Whether the “teachers” would only obey so far as to torture their victim or whether they would obey an order to kill them is, in the context of leftturnandre’s 1532 post, a distinction without significance.
BTW, DirkH, I almost didn’t post the above, for I have admired your strong defense of truth in your other posts and you and I are on the same side in the fight for truth-in-science, but, the horrific fact of what Dr. Milgram discovered in his experiments regarding the willingness on the part of a certain personality type (“authoritarian personalities”, i.e., they have an unhealthy willingness to obey authority) to obey an evil authority figure must not be forgotten or downplayed. It is a warning we must remember so that “never again” will someone like a certain Austrian (NOT Australian) from the 1930’s lead a great nation to the brink of self-destruction. QUESTION AUTHORITY (if done with civility and a genuine desire to serve truth) must ever remain a truthseeker’s rallying cry.
“Neanderthalic Homer Simpson” [Jimbo]
LOL.
D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh! D’oh!
Funny thing, this “Neanderthal” (his word choice, not mine) somehow managed to have 20+ US patents issued in his name (a few with co-inventors) and was responsible for calibrating the sensors that provide those nice Digital-Globe™ images of the Earth.
What will those crazy “Neanderthals” accomplish next ? Maybe we can save the Earth, just in case it really, really, really needs our help……
Jeeeze, not only am I a “denier”, I am also a “Neanderthal”, who knew ????
On the other hand, I must be over the target; the FLAK sure seems to be increasing.
Cheers, Kevin