Top NASA Climatologist: Put CEOs On Trial For Global Warming Lies

Fox News:

Dr. James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, sounded the alarm about global warming in testimony before a Senate subcommittee exactly 20 years ago.

He returned to the topic Monday with a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., given to the Worldwatch Institute.

"Special interests have blocked the transition to our renewable energy future," Hansen writes in an opinion piece posted on the institute's Web site. "Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil fuel companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, just as tobacco companies discredited the link between smoking and cancer. Methods are sophisticated, including funding to help shape school textbook discussions of global warming."

Read the whole story: Fox News

Comments

[texfly]

Talk of prosecution is counter productive. The scientific evidence is clear. The power over us is our gluttony for ENERGY. We are threatened more today by our dependence on oil than on the vacuous terrorists. It is time to change our path to improve our reputation among nations. The easiest first step, with the largest immediate impact, is small battery-powered vehicles with on-board recharge generators (cellulosic ethanol). Target large metro areas with high populations of commuters and 1-by-1, city-by-city implement small 100 mpg electric vehicles. Small 2 and 4-seat models could be replacing the commuter fleet of cars TODAY. Larger vehicles will follow from our auto manufacturers in due course. There are already manufacturers of such vehicles albeit without the on-board generators, but adding a generator is a trivial engineering problem. All that we have to do is build the manufacturing infrastructure. Little or no R&D, and minimal development required. Jobs will be created, the middle class can be reborn, our addiction to oil will be broken, our national security will be enhanced, with net-zero carbon emissions. By targeting cities sequentially, the "training" required for large vehicles to share lanes (or use separate lanes) with the smaller vehicles would be fast since they will be deployed in large numbers rapidly. The technology exists to make such cars NOW. We just lack the will. Flexibility of will is easier, and less expensive, than making war.

[lfotweaker]

"are denialists criminals" ?!

Heil HuffPo!

[Blutus]

C'mon folks.

An environmental fanatic?

Right. And what were all those shuttle missions really about?

This guy is in the vortex of the MIC.

NASA aka the NSA. These aren't a bunch of innocent nerds
spinning in space playing with larva.

They are finding targets, mapping territory, prepping for WW3.

Scientists my butt. What were on all those shuttle missions, all that secret cargo?

Cares about the environment but ready to blow us all to the moon! Right!

[Raymondf]

Nasa has the biggest global warming footprint, burning off the Ozone layer. There's no such thing as global warming anyway.

[Gabrielle]

your head must still be in the sand

[dukeitout]

To get slightly off subject for a moment---------Dr. Hansen should spend some of his time exhorting NASA leadership to direct more of their funds to better, more imaginative space tasks. Billions and billions of dollars have been squandered since the 1970's in doltish low orbital space-station type tasks that are real "yawners" to those financiers we call the public. Presently, the chief benefit is the employment it provides. (This criticism is not intended for that group involved in unmanned interplanetary probes.) A positive step would be for NASA to pick-up where they left off in the 70's by establishing laboratories, telescopes, buildings, water recycling and oxygen recycling experiments, etc. on that natural space station we call the moon. Hell, Dr. Hansen and NASA might even find a way to siphon off CO2 from the earths atmosphere and jettison it to the moon. We have the technical experts. We need to kick it up several notches in our vision and creativity.

[johnnyjust]

I wonder how much CO2 the over 700 forest fires in Northern California alone compares with the CO2 normally produced by man and how this clown is prepared to deal with nature.

Ghia Gitmo?

[RTIII]

As a scientist working in this area...

Well, it turns out that fires are and always have been a part of our ecosystem since, oh, about 2 billion years ago (give or take a few hundred million) when the first flammable plant material appeared on land, probably before the first land creatures. As such, they're a part of the natural cycle. Plants take up CO2 and release it and there's a cycle that has remained in balance for millions of years. The cycle is shorter for grasses and longer for trees, but in both cases it's a zero-sum game - no net change.

We know its' been in balance for millions of years because we have direct evidence, such as the air trapped in glass when lightening strikes sand.

Humans are releasing buried CO2, taking the system out of balance. We're taking stored CO2 and adding it - unlike a forest or grass-land fire. The level of CO2 hasn't been this high in this planets atmosphere since BEFORE any creature first walked on land. It was in the anaerobic era, over 2 billion years ago when earth last saw CO2 levels this high.

[ChristianEcon.com]

Can't you find a job via Exxon? I'm sure you'd make a lot more....

[truthynesslover]

As a scientist working in this area..LOL If you really were a scientist you would know there is no such thing as balance in nature.Its always changing and always dynamic.We would naturally be heading into a warming phase but because we have by our overloading our ecological system,we dont have the period of time to adjust, we are in real trouble and may not survive it!Remember greenland used to be green!P.s.most forest fires are set by idiots in the woods.

[fumes]

you seem to be a lastworder here like killthemessenger, sure you're a scientist?

[Blutus]

So all the erosion caused by human development that increases the frequency and severity of these fires is what, a coincidence?

Dear god, try harder please.

[MissingAmerica]

If we were to do that, we'd have to put their boss away, too, and so far we just haven't been able to do that.

[dgscol]

Hansen is a climate terrorist. In return he obtains funding at NASA. His case for carbon being the problem is a hoax. There is an impending crisis, and all politics aside, it is caused by overpopulation. There are increasing numbers of places where natural climatic variability is leading to serious food shortages, as population go up , and marginal land is used for crops. This is what happened to the former Soviet Union, and also now imperils China, India, and Africa.

Throttling down energy is one way to impede development, which increases the rate at which resources are used. The problem here is that people are misdirected into making changes that are stupid, like putting carbon filters on automobiles.

[RTIII]

Most changes people should be putting into effect are beneficial not only to our shared atmosphere, but also to our wallets; Green changes save money, especially in the long run.

You can choose to be a nay-sayer, and keep your head in the ground, but you're being an idiot to your own financial interest if you don't adopt "green" behaviors.

You're right about too many people, by the way. No doubt about that.

But Hansen's work is pretty good - I've seen some of it. I've got some of his research on my computers now and I haven't yet seen any cause to fault it.

BTW, Hansen doesn't advocate "throttling down energy," just changing where we get our energy from.

[outnow]

The cost of doing nothing is outweighed by the cost of undertaking action. If nothing else, the pollution is killing us. I have yet to see any credible dispute about these underlying concepts. Expert opinion requires education, training, and experience. It also requires a factual basis for the conclusions. Most expert opinions are rendered on the basis of probabilities, not certainties. This is unfortunate but, if, for example, the doctor says that you have cancer (a certainty based on pathology studies) and that you have only six months to live, the latter is his opinion. But his opinion is based on a reasonable medical certainty based on similar cases and studies. That's why there is staging - so treatment decisions can be based on the best available data.

Climate change is a potentially fatal diagnosis for the entire human race. John McCain points out that the available evidence demands that any reasonable person or government take immediate action. What action we can take is the biggest problem. Silencing government officials is not the answer. I respect Dr. Hanson's efforts. He is brave. The heroes of tomorrow are the Cassandras of today.

This is a much bigger threat than the terrorists and demands immediate action and more money that fighting terrorism.

[RTIII]

Well put. Thanks for the post.

[lfotweaker]

Cassandra, hehe.

This seems more like a Trojan Horse, or a Sisyphean effort, or Paris and the Golden Apple Climate Model.

[BlackandProud]

Must be embarrassing for NASA to have this guying going against NASA's own temperature findings. No credibility. Huffington should be embarrassed. See below.

NASA Temperature Deviation Chart
NASA / GISS Top 10 U.S. Temperature deviation (deg C) in New Order 8/7/2007
August 7, 2007

Newly published data set from Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS)

These numbers represent deviation from the mean temperature calculated from temperature measurement stations throughout the USA.
According to the new data published by NASA, 1998 is no longer the hottest year ever. 1934 is.

Four of the top 10 years of US CONUS high temperature deviations are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900. (World rankings of temperature are calculated separately.)

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

This refers to US temps alone, not global temps, or perhaps you knew that if you read the last line of your comment.

[outnow]

Too much Fox Noise. Some people grasp at straws when they are drowning rather that getting a hold of the life-preserver. Such is the nature of "belief." Accepting a proposition without proof - even in the face of proof to the contrary. One's eyes start to play tricks; the brain refuses to comprehend. It's called denial.

[RTIII]

I got started working in Earth Science via a NASA grant about 15 years ago, so I know about this.

Here's something you may or may not know, depending on how well you listen - it HAS been in the main stream media, but usually buried, page 23 of section 5, with three inches of one column...

This administration - Junior's - has actively altered all public releases of scientific findings since roughly about the time he took office. None of us can get our research published anywhere the public can realistically find it along with our conclusions. We are MAY present RAW data, but that's not of much use. It doesn't tell you what issues there are with it, and how to interpret it. Short of becoming an expert yourself, there's little you can get from us that's worth much of a damn.

In particular, you are citing North American temperature data. You may not be aware, however, that in Global Climate Change (the PROPER name) invloves some places getting warmer while others get colder and other places becoming wetter, others dryer. It's the WHOLE system that needs to be evaluated. But, not working in the field, you may not realize that. Individual data points are useless by themselves.

Aside from these issues, Junior has cut our budget so it's about 2/3rds today what it was in the last year of Clinton. And Junior has tried to disrupt the continuity of data streams to screw up the science...

[ChristianEcon.com]

"Junior has cut our budget"

You didn't want the mulitmillionaires and billionaires to go without did you? Sheesh.

[LoonaC]

This is to all the people who think the oil companies are at fault.
it has been some time now that you know that your cars emit CO2.
SO have you all stopped driving your cars?
Of course not - cause you want to blame it on the other guy as usual.
It is has been established that the earth has been cooling since 1998.
This same NASA guy was also warning against global cooling a few years ago.
Plus, what is wrong with us when we want our freedom to say what we think but want to deny others the same freedom?

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

wha wha wha?

seen any of the us automobile companies lately, wonder why their numbers are in the tank? It is not just because they can't compete overseas very well.

Do you honestly believe any of the reports generated by the oil companies on GW are true? Do they have anything to lose? Did the cigarette companies do the same thing?

Has it really been established that we have been in a cooling period (global) since 1998? link?

I am not aware of him warning against global cooling a few years back. This should be an easy google search if it is true. It is not.

I guess you can say what you think as long as it doesn't doom others, but I don't really follow you on that one.

[RTIII]

Good points.

1) No, nobody wants gas guzzlers any more. (thankfully)

2) No.

3) Not really.

4) Yes, there's an odd parallel with tobacco!

5) ABSOLUTELY NOT. (no links, it's not true)

Hansen DID talk about global cooling as part of a cold-war dialog on nuclear winter. But it was only a discussion of the possibilities and not a discussion of any real cooling or any research.

The troll was trying to rebut the idea that the oil companies shouldn't be held accountable because they have freedoms. I rebut his rebuttal below.

[Tator]

Well said......Where are the vast majority of greenhouse gases produced...in the cities, which are predominantly populated with hypocritical Liberals. When the day comes the Liberals turn off the AC, stop driving cars, grow their own food (so it does not have to be trucked to them) and actually make the high priest AlGore practice what his elitist energy wasting butt tries to tell everyone else to do.

Liberals produce the majority of greenhouse gases yet they want to blame everyone else....typical Liberal "IT'S ALWAYS SOMEONE ELSE'S FAULT"

[outnow]

Those hypocritical liberals drive their BMWs to Starbucks where they drink highly polluting lattes. They read the NYT - otherwise known as the communist manifesto. They turn themselves pink reading Karl Marx. They love any terrorist. And they don't wear a flag in their lapels.

[RTIII]

No matter who is to blame, it's a problem for all of us.

I take responsibility for me.

My commute is a flight of stairs.

I use less than 10 gallons of gasoline a month - and no diesel. I grow food - not enough, but some - in a garden, and I don't eat much besides. I eat locally-grown whenever possible. I reject products because of too much packaging. I recycle _everything_ I possibly can, I reduce my consumption well below others around me - I don't require much. And I re-use everything I can think of, whether it came from me or someone else. I like to fix things and create new things from old things.

I also use less than 10 gallons of water a day.

I take care of my consumption. I walk the walk while I talk the talk. You?
.

[outnow]

The cooling you speak of is only a temporary reverse tendency that is overcome by the global warming caused by greenhouse gases. Why do you make this argument?

That people still drive their cars and the fact that the government has no responded appropriately to the greenhouse effect is that two wrongs justify both or wrong. So I I ride my bike, then global warming is solved? If all American rode their bikes bu the Chinese didn't, then global warming is still not stopped.

We are talking about science - not faith-based beliefs. Bush and McCain both want the government to step in. I heard McCain's speech today on the dire necessity to stop global warming.

We want our freedom? What is that supposed to mean? So you are free.

Galileo was put on trial for his view that the earth was round and the sun was the center of the universe. It is always the church and the established business interests that denies science. The oil companies have approached every person with a PhD to lie, just as other companies did with tobacco and asbestos. This is not a victimless crime. Suppressing the truth about a major threat to humanity by those responsible to act on our behalf is a crime - especially when they retaliate against whistleblowers.

[Photofarm]

Actually most of the global warming promoted by Hansen is more like a religion rather than science. There is a lot of science that Hansen throws out, because it would stop his funding if he didn't have a crisis to scare people.

[MemphisBuffalo]

No real alternative for consumers thanks to the GOP and corporate america. Don't blame the victims.

[johnnyjust]

You will always be a victim.

[williamjgc]

Ah... now we see the true colors of the enviro-alarmists. They go on endlessly about the responsibility of everyone to live as THEY SAY, and yet they do nothing themselves! I don't mean the usual taking public transit and turning down the thermostat kind of stuff. I mean living like someone who really cares about your cause enough to leave the so-called poisonous culture you constantly speak against.

Show some leadership and walk your doomsday talk. Show us how it's done. If it is all such an emergency why are you not abandoning your polluting car and polluting home and living off the land, at one with nature?? (You too Chancellor Gore)

Instead you cry and moan that there are no alternatives because you are a poor victim of someone else. News flash: Every time you get up in the morning you have many alternatives. Many choices. That you choose not exercise them is your problem. No, instead so many of you who cry the loudest suggest trials and imprisonment for those WHO DON'T AGREE WITH YOU.

That's all you got?! Thats your best solution?? History is littered with similar solutions from people who also thought they were so right, so justified it didn't matter who rotted in jail or even died to prove it . Congratulations! You are in great company!

The irony that many climate alarmists are from the "progressives" crowd is rich indeed. Your climate trials don't sound like progress to me.

[RTIII]

Sorry. This is my field. You are wrong about cooling since '98.

During the cold war there was talk of nuclear winter - perhaps you're too young to know about that. Hansen's discussions then were about the possibilities regarding cooling, not any "reality" of it cooling. That was then and this is now and the science today is very solid and the science then was just speculation about nuclear winter - or, at least, that's were the discussion started.

You have freedoms of speech but it is well recognized that certain speech harms others and is not permitted. The truth is always an acceptable defense, but false claims of fire in a crowded theater is a favorite example of what you can't do, as would be lying to a court of law. This is what Hansen's talking about. Knowing lies that harm others.

[JulieSA]

"tried for high crimes against humanity and nature".

The punishment for high crimes against humanity is usually death, or at least life imprisonment.

Dr. Hansen has lost his mind, or perhaps he always possessed a totalitarian streak. Which ever the case, this certainly makes me less likely to heed his argument.

[leduck]

what if he's right and you're wrong?
can we charge you with crimes against humanity?

[JulieSA]

He's wrong to think you can prosecute people for that, and so are you.

[blindjester]

Alexander the Great speaking to a pirate:

"When that king had asked the man what he meant by his hostile actions on the sea, he answered with bold pride: 'The same you mean by taking the whole earth. But because I do it with a small ship, I am called a robber, while you who do it with a great fleet are called emperor.'"

If you cause the injury of a few people, you get sued. You cause the death of someone, you go to jail.

If you're wealthy enough and powerful enough to contribute to disease and death worldwide, you get to live in a mansion.

[TRocks]

Touché!

[PublicAdvocate]

Assuming you're correct in your application of punishment, are you advocating that it is better to put humanity and the interconnected web of life into a permanent death spiral and extinction just to buy a few more years of profiteering for the greediest and most callous corporate polluters?

The poison fruits of Industrial Capitalism ripen each day and if we are to be stewards of the earth we must have a radical change policies. If we don't the legacy for future generations that survive will be an inheritance of barren oceans, fouled air, filthy rivers and noxious landfills leaching a plethora of poisons into the groundwater. A depleted earth courteousy of selfish humanity.

Capitalism is proving to be the most durable and destructive economic system ever unleashed upon humanity, doing more damage than Communism, Socialism and small Agrarian systems combined.

[JulieSA]

"are you advocating that it is better to put humanity and the interconnected web of life into a permanent death spiral"

No. Show some evidence that I am. Show some evidence that the oil CEO's are, and see how it holds up in court. What evidence do you have that any of this leads to a permanent death spiral? I'd love to see someone try to prove this in court.

Communism's environmental record is far worse than capitalism's. Plus, Communist governments murdered over 100 million of their own citizens.

Those are crimes against humanity, and maybe you should be prosecuted for advocating for by far the most murderous system in world history.

However, unlike you, I don't think people should be prosecuted for their ideas.

History shows: the biggest killer is totalitarian government.

You'd be shocked at how much of my time and treasure I've devoted to environmental causes. Without free speech, we have nothing, though.

That's why the far greater danger is people like you and Hansen who would see our rights done away with.

It's pretty basic, and I'm amazed that you obama don't get this. This is why i vote the way i do. Leftists are constantly trying to take away our rights.

[HumeSkeptic]

Poor choice of words by Dr. Hansen. He should stick to science. I think he makes a very solid and convincing case for immediate and drastic measures.

[johnnyjust]

That would be the next step. Come up with an agendized and unscientific theory or philosophy. Find some mindless followers who have the intelligence to repeat a slogan. (Yes We Can?) Make even questioning such theory subject of ridicule. Make questioning that theory, finally, a criminal offense.

And the chanting crowd says, "Sieg Heil!"

[leduck]

and your study debunking climate change is where?

[blindjester]

If you think you own a car, and I question that theory, can I take it?

After all, facts are just like opinions, if you refuse to believe them.

[johnnyjust]

I won't send you to jail for denying I have a car, and if you deny I have a car why would you take something that doesn't exist?

I know why you fall for something that doesn't exist....even the godless need to believe in something.

The truth never changes. "Facts" about global warming change with every study. And a consensus does not a fact make.

[UnbiasView]

It is nice to see some of the global warming extremists finally start to lose it, this guy is obviously off his rocker.

[TRocks]

This guy is actually the Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. And you?

[Beowolf741]

How about you? Or anyone else on this comments section. Gee, I didn't know I had to be an expert to express an opinion here? Wasn't part of my registration process was it yours?

"This guy is actually the Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies." That's right so why is it so hard to believe him?

[UnbiasView]

And Bush is the President of the USA . . . does that make him right, smart or not a liar?

[outnow]

I have a friend who works for NASA and teaches astral physics at Caltech. He says that climate change is happening. He is constantly offered large sums of money by corporations and think tanks to dispute the science with his credentials. He has examined all the studies as they are published for the past ten years. He is unable to refute the theories and the conclusions. He doesn't need the money and told me that he wishes that the doubters would stop trying to buy his opinion. It isn't for sale.

Even John McCain stated today in a major speech that global warming is happening and is due to man's activities. Unfortunately, things are getting worse and time is wasting with doubters and skeptics. The downside on doing nothing is worse than the downside of taking action. Just the pollution alone is worth eliminating.

[Beowolf741]

If the Big Oil CEOs, the automotive CEOs, and whoever else are pulling tobacco industry tactics on the world climate issue and I think they are, I see no problem whatsoever with what this Nasa scientist is proposing. This isn't just Uncle Barney dying in the hospital from Emphysema cause the cool Joe Camel or Marlboro man told it was okay. This would be the whole world going in a direction that we were strong, smart, and foolish enough to cause but not strong or smart enough to change once it hits its tipping point.

Changing the way we use and create energy is a win win situation politically, economically, and environmentally. I just don't see why there is delay on this?

[UnbiasView]

Not economically, $200 a barrel oil is still more cost efficient than any wind, solar or biofuels.

[LoonaC]

Mr. Beowolf741,
So if you are still driving your car then you should be prosecuted too.
Polluter !!!