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Shilling for Anthropogenic Global Warming -- Dr. James Hansen

I don't know what kind of flea Dr. Hansen has up his butt but his office and position shames the past glories of NASA. The AGW "troothers" are using data that are deeply flawed, using temperature measurement stations like this:



Click for larger image.

What was once a rural measuring station
has now been encroached
by heat producing structures. and ignoring the more accurate data from satellite data and the ocean-going Argo robotic probes (from here) Granted, I cherry-picked the Marysville station as it is one of the most egregiously bad examples out there but there are a lot of semi-good and less-bad stations that show recent temperature increases without compensating for the messy asphalt parking lots, surrounding buildings, HVAC units, etc... What gets me about Hanson is that he is taking his scientific bully-pulpit and trying to effect political changes -- something a true scientist would never ever do. You may have personal beliefs but science should be pure and absolute. From Watts Up With That:

NASA�s Jim Hansen calls for energy company execs to be put on trial
This troubling news from the Guardian, UK

�James Hansen, one of the world�s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken immediately if the �perfect storm� of irreversible climate change is not to become inevitable.

Speaking before Congress again, he will accuse the chief executive officers of companies such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of being fully aware of the disinformation about climate change they are spreading.�

complete story
I suspect he�ll be calling for the jailing of bloggers like myself next. I think Mr. Hansen has lost all sense of reason, and his last shred of credibility.

And the funny thing is, Dr. Hansen has ZERO formal training in Climatology. His CV is here: Dr. James E. Hansen To whit:

B.A., Physics and Mathematics, 1963, University of Iowa
M.S., Astronomy, 1965, University of Iowa
Ph.D., Physics, 1967, University of Iowa

And now, he goes and says this -- from The Daily Galaxy:

NASA's Leading Climate Scientist Says Corrupt Politics is Covering Up the Truth About Global Warming
James Hansen, head of NASA�s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, is widely respected as one of the world's leading climate scientists. He says the public is being lied to and duped by special interest groups about the severity of the threat that global warming poses. He also claims that policy makers and big oil executives are sacrificing public interest to line their own pockets.

"The problem is not political will, it's the alligator shoes - the lobbyists. It's the fact that money talks in Washington, and that democracy is not working the way it's intended to work," says Hansen.

Hansen told US Congress earlier this week that CO2 is already almost certainly at unsafe levels, and the situation will only become more dangerous the longer we continue to largely ignore the problem. Currently, CO2 concentration is 385 parts per million and is rising by 2ppm a year.

Hansen called on a moratorium for any new coal-fired power plants. He also advocated the creation of a huge grid of low-loss electric power lines buried under ground and spread across America. Such a move would give clean energy like wind and solar power a chance to compete with polluting energy like coal and oil. He believes that in order for this to happen it has to be made a national priority in the next presidency.

"The new U.S. president would have to take the initiative analogous to Kennedy's decision to go to the moon."

Missed it by that much... Yeah, decision to go to the moon but Hansen is Wrong Way Corrigan on this issue. The decision needs to be safe Nuclear (like France and Japan -- both over 70% of baseload) and using our vast Coal reserves to generate any liquid fuel we might need. Let's let Corn go back to being a food and not continue with the stupid subsidies for a fuel that doesn't work. Posted by DaveH at June 29, 2008 9:19 PM