James Hansen, Top NASA Scientist, Calls For Moratorium On Coal

New York Times:

Twenty years ago on Monday, James E. Hansen testified before the Senate Energy Committee -- in a room kept intentionally warm by committee staff -- that the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and forests was already perceptibly influencing Earth's climate.

Then, as now, Dr. Hansen, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was pushing beyond what many of his colleagues in climatology were willing to say -- at least publicly. His supporters say that, given how science and events appear to be catching up with his projections of two decades ago, the world had better heed his new recommendations. His critics show few signs of ever accommodating the ideas he now presses, which include a prompt moratorium on new coal-burning power plants until they can capture and store carbon dioxide and a rising tax on fuels contributing greenhouse-gas emissions, with the revenue passed back directly to citizens, avoiding the complexities of "cap and trade" bills.

Watch Hanson in an interview with Andrew C. Revkin:

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[walk0nwalls]

I'll start making the coffins for when we all start dying and when the denialists realize they're wrong.

I'll make a KILLING on coffin sales.
.

Start the dark humor.

[Tator]

WASHINGTON (AP) —Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming...­...and 35 years after warning America about global cooling...­.....Hanse­n is a hack con man snookering the feeble minded....­hence his success with Liberals.

[Exusian]

Ah, the 'global cooling' meme, this time leveled directly at James Hansen.
Of course, no evidence is presented to back up this ludicrous assertion.

That's because there is none. Nada. Zilch.
Which makes this drive-by slander and libel.

But then what can you expect when they don't have any science.
Just lies, more lies and yet more lies.

[ohiomark]

Just like there is no proof that man caused the global warming that ended 10 years ago.

[mergina]

Good luck with China and yes the u.s.a. on that one.

[wayoutleft]

as you read down, you'll mostly a see time-honored right-wing corporate strategy: attack james hansen. ignore the bone-crushing weight of evidence and scientific consensus in the field. yes, scientific skepticism is easy to paint as disagreement. but cautionary application of the data does not mean disagreement with the global warming consensus. but for most americans, everything but the superbowl is a furrin teerist plot against america.

[darthdarcy]

The Coal Seam Fires in China are so bad they can be seen from space by the naked eye..

These fires produce no steel heat no home just a huge waste of a natural resource and they equal the CO2 output of all the cars and light trucks of the United States...o­r the entire industrial out put of the Netherland­s...

Then there are all the coal plants in China which are being built regularly at a staggering rate..

[KillTheMessenger]

Oh, look, someone is still trying to graduate from kindergarten but always fails the test about the finger pointing..­.

[noneIn2008]

I imagine there are many at NOAA and NASA astounded by your article title to call Hansen either a top scientist and/or a climatologist. He is neither, he is a bureaucrat and politician. He stopped practicing science a long time ago. He has never been a climatologist.

[wayoutleft]

what we need to recapture the point are your voluminous cites to NOAA and NASA docs contradicting the thesis. it's ok to post them here. don't be shy. you don't need to "imagine" you can just quote "astounded" NOAA and NASA personnel- not that that would have anything to do with the actual thesis either, which you can discover by reading the post (scroll up)

[Marlyn]

"a national low loss electric grid, a DC grid, a high voltage DC grid. One which you should bury so that people don't object, it doesn't impact on the views, on the environmen­t." James Hansen

Here is our answer.

[KillTheMessenger]

The grid is needed, even without global warming. Whether one should build it underground at ten times the cost is debatable. This ecoterrorist says, no, let's build it cheap with conventional pylons. While it does not look good, it will work just as well (better actually) above the ground.

[thundermummy]

Clean is to coal as edible is to feces.

[Marlyn]

AVOID the complexities of "cap and trade" bills.

[blueshield]

hey! I thought coal was the clean fuel! I just saw it on TV.

[Exusian]

That is the current horse plop the coal and electric generation industries are pushing.

And I can get you good deal on a bridge in Brooklyn.

[blueshield]

...but the coal industry scientists say its clean, and why would they lie? I mean, guys like Hansen don't know about carbon - he's a climateoligist, fer cripes sakes!. I think he's just trying to scam us all to make money. Or maybe he's starting some new religion. Coal's been around for a long time. Not like global warming. That's why I think we should use all the coal we can. Besides, it's real clean. I heard it on TV!

[dgscol]

Hansen is a propagandist, and you can tell that in 1 minute listening to him. He had a simple and
very tiny mechanism for warming and he presses his case, despite all the complications he ignores. Actually, Hanson should be considered a criminal, for misleading so many people about this, when he should have known better.

He, himself, says, the co2 effect is small compared to other weather phenomena, phenomena he does not explain, or seem to comprehend. And do not forget that water washes the co2 out of the atmosphere.

Either hansen is deranged, or he is perpetrating a hoax. Either way, he is the public menace. He risks creating the confusion that is driving the politicians to alter policy involving many dollars, and that makes his seriuosly dangerous. I would certainly put an FBI agent on his case, to find out where his loyalties lie.

[Exusian]

"And do not forget that water washes the co2 out of the atmosphere­."

No, it does not and it can not.

Where do you get this tripe? Do you read it somewhere, or do you just make it up as you go?

[GinnyinCO]

Actually, the rain does wash some of the CO2 out of the atmosphere:

"Coral reefs, the rainforest of the ocean, are home to one-third of the species in the sea. Coral reefs are under stress for several reasons, including warming of the ocean, but especially because of ocean acidification, a direct effect of added carbon dioxide. Ocean life dependent on carbonate shells and skeletons is threatened by dissolution as the ocean becomes more acid."

From Hansen's own post here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-james-hansen/twenty-years-later-tippin_b_108766.html

Anorther issue: if China and India continue to increase their emissions as much as they have, the situation will deteriorate more quickly. Anyone who reads or listens to the news (even the MSM) should be aware of the health problems China is having in some big cities. Some athletes may give up their chance to compete in this Olympics for fear of what the air pollution may do to their lungs.

It is odd that more people do not understand how changes in the concentration of chemicals can go from adaptable to toxic in at a relatively definitive line. Those chemistry blood tests you have had were for your doctor to be sure your body was keeping the chemicals in proper balance. Take the sodium, potassium, etc to high or too low, death can happen.

[HeevenSteven]

I'll humor you for a sec. Suppose it is all a fraud; what's the motivation. What's the ends to this means. That "liberals" want to control the world? engineer society? Gimme a break, and something plausible. I haven't heard a plausible sentence yet from the deniers.

[1will]

Actually wanting to engineer society pretty much defines the term Liberal. Whether it's keeping gas prices high to get Americans out of SUV's and raising MPG requirements or redistribution of wealth, Liberals constantly want a governmental controlling hand guiding society.

[PeaceCzar]

You wasted that second on the knuckledragger, sorry.

[wadenelson1]

I have to agree. When all that's in it for ALL of us is trouble and cost why would ANY of us support it if it wasn't true.

[Marlyn]

"Hansen is a propagandist" ???
I think NOT.

What is the difference between propaganda and science?
PROPAGANDA is LIES. Science searches for truth.

[wayoutleft]

i am inclined to listen to the director of the godard institute for space studies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen#Education

you need to learn some respect for your betters.

[KillTheMessenger]

Wow... someone went all in for public humiliation. Thanks, now I know that you failed school. I don't have to ask your friends any more.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

I love my huge Carbon Footprint

[kingcityguru]

I think man made global warming is a fraud. Of course, I also recently installed solar panel from Day4Energy (the most efficient on the market) that completely replace my daytime consumption of electricity (with excess sold back to the grid). Guess I only go to jail on weekends.

[RoloTomassi]

Hey, be a denialist all you want, as long as you're doing something positive in relation to the problem, then you're doing more than most.

[1will]

Just out of curiousity, what did the Solar Panels cost? I agree that a lot of this GW scare is an attempt to make money, control Americans and tax everyone and everything. I still try to cut back though since we rely on those that hate us for oil.

[thundermummy]

Hey 1will, are you interested in gainful employment? I need a cuckoo for my clock, I'll pay you in canned goods and shotguns!

[RememberTheAlamo]

And another good point!

[KillTheMessenger]

Why in the world would anybody want to "control" your taxes? Don't you feel a little paranoid, at times?

[KillTheMessenger]

And science says that you will save the same amount of CO2, no matter what you believe. So you are a good man (or woman) with dirty thoughts who does good deeds. To me, the only thing that counts are the deeds.

[1will]

There's a link on the Drudge Report about Hansen calling for those that publicly doubt GW to be charged with a crime.

[fumes]

uh-oh! how 'bout loonies like me who just doubt the co2 connection?

[KillTheMessenger]

You have just said it yourself why we don't take you for real.

[Marlyn]

fumes, are you just uneducated or what? Is science against your religion?

[Raymondf]

I think it is ironic that Nasa is calling for a coal moratorium on coal, when it is space exploration(BS) by the way that burns off the Ozone layer rather than coal that is causing all the problems. Don't the idiot know that we are going to have to use coal, recycled plastics, and other things to have enough fuel to exist. What a stark raving idiot he is.

[KillTheMessenger]

Wow, ray, good trolling! Throw out some random nonsense and wait until someone bites! That's how it's done!

[mathme]

Yeah, all of that hydrogen and oxygen.... yikes.

[Viper]

Actually he is correct about the damage done by each Shuttle flight.

Other than that he is a nut.


Regards

Down here in Housrton at the Johnson Space Center