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NASA's chief climate scientist is in hot water with colleagues and at least one lawmaker after calling on citizens to engage in civil disobedience at what is being billed as the largest public protest of global warming ever in the United States.

In a video on capitolclimateaction.org, Dr. James Hansen is seen urging Americans to "take a stand on global warming" during the March 2 protest at the Capitol Power Plant in Southeast Washington, D.C.

But critics say Hansen's latest call to action blurs the line between astronomer and activist and may violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from participating in partisan political activity.

"Oh my goodness," one of Hansen's former supervisors, Dr. John Theon, told FOXNews.com when informed of the video. "I'm not surprised ... The fact that Jim Hansen has gone off the deep end here is sad because he's a good fellow."

Theon, a former senior NASA atmospheric scientist, rebuked Hansen last month in a letter to the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, saying Hansen had violated NASA's official position on climate forecasting without sufficient evidence and embarrassed the agency by airing his claims before Congress in 1988.

"Why he has not been fired I do not understand," Theon said. "As a civil servant, you can't participate in calling for a public demonstration. You may be able to participate as a private citizen, but when you go on the Internet and call for people to break the law, that's a problem."

NASA spokesman Mark Hess...defended Hansen.

"He's doing this as a private citizen on his own time and there's nothing wrong with that," Hess told FOXNews.com. "There's nothing partisan here. You don't give up your rights to free speech by becoming a government employee."

Matt Leonard, a project coordinator for Greenpeace, one of more than 90 organizations endorsing the protest, said several thousand people are expected to participate and "peacefully disrupt operations" at the plant just blocks from Capitol Hill.

Participants are willing to "put their bodies on the line to stop climate change," including risking arrest, Leonard said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., urged Hansen to rethink his plans...

Rohrabacher, a member of the House's Committee on Science and Technology, called on Hansen to "step out" of his role.

"He obviously doesn't feel comfortable with the restraints that come with being a scientist rather than a political activist," Rohrabacher said. "Most of us have always thought he has been hiding behind a scientific facade, and really, he was a political activist all along."

Chris Horner, author of "Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed," also denounced Hansen's latest call to arms against climate change.

"He's providing ample cause to question his employment on the taxpayer dime," Horner told FOXNews.com. "He's clearly abused his platform provided to him by the taxpayer, principally by the way he's been exposed of manipulating and revising data with the strange coincidence of him always found on the side of exaggerating the warming."

Horner claimed that Hansen doctored temperature data on two occasions in 2001 and once in 2007 in attempts to show an impending climate catastrophe.

"He's creating an upward slope that really wasn't there," Horner said. "At some point you have to say these aren't mistakes."

"We need to send a message to Congress and the president that we want them to take the actions that are needed to preserve climate for young people and future generations and all life on the planet," says Hansen, who has likened coal-fired power plants to "factories of death" and claims he was muzzled by the Bush administration when he warned of drastic climate changes.

"What has become clear from the science is that we cannot burn all of the fossil fuels without creating a very different planet. The only practical way to solve the problem is to phase out the biggest source of carbon — and that's coal."

Hansen, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story, was most recently honored for his work last month with the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Meteorological Society.

"Jim Hansen is performing a tremendous job at communicating our science to the public and, more importantly, to policymakers and decision-makers," Franco Einaudi, director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a press release.

"The debate about global change is often emotional and controversial, and Jim has had the courage to stand up and say what others did not want to hear. He has acquired a credibility that very few scientists have. His success is due in part to his personality, in part to his scientific achievements, and in part to his refusing to sit on the sidelines of the debate."

Former Vice President Al Gore, who toured with Hansen while promoting "An Inconvenient Truth," did not return repeated requests for comment for this article.

travelinman67 wrote:NASA's Chief Climate Scientist Stirs Controversy With Call for Civil Disobedience

Friday, February 27, 2009

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,501064,00.html

NASA's chief climate scientist is in hot water with colleagues and at least one lawmaker after calling on citizens to engage in civil disobedience at what is being billed as the largest public protest of global warming ever in the United States.

In a video on capitolclimateaction.org, Dr. James Hansen is seen urging Americans to "take a stand on global warming" during the March 2 protest at the Capitol Power Plant in Southeast Washington, D.C.

But critics say Hansen's latest call to action blurs the line between astronomer and activist and may violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from participating in partisan political activity.

"Oh my goodness," one of Hansen's former supervisors, Dr. John Theon, told FOXNews.com when informed of the video. "I'm not surprised ... The fact that Jim Hansen has gone off the deep end here is sad because he's a good fellow."

Theon, a former senior NASA atmospheric scientist, rebuked Hansen last month in a letter to the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, saying Hansen had violated NASA's official position on climate forecasting without sufficient evidence and embarrassed the agency by airing his claims before Congress in 1988.

"Why he has not been fired I do not understand," Theon said. "As a civil servant, you can't participate in calling for a public demonstration. You may be able to participate as a private citizen, but when you go on the Internet and call for people to break the law, that's a problem."

NASA spokesman Mark Hess...defended Hansen.

"He's doing this as a private citizen on his own time and there's nothing wrong with that," Hess told FOXNews.com. "There's nothing partisan here. You don't give up your rights to free speech by becoming a government employee."

Matt Leonard, a project coordinator for Greenpeace, one of more than 90 organizations endorsing the protest, said several thousand people are expected to participate and "peacefully disrupt operations" at the plant just blocks from Capitol Hill.

Participants are willing to "put their bodies on the line to stop climate change," including risking arrest, Leonard said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., urged Hansen to rethink his plans...

Rohrabacher, a member of the House's Committee on Science and Technology, called on Hansen to "step out" of his role.

"He obviously doesn't feel comfortable with the restraints that come with being a scientist rather than a political activist," Rohrabacher said. "Most of us have always thought he has been hiding behind a scientific facade, and really, he was a political activist all along."

Chris Horner, author of "Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed," also denounced Hansen's latest call to arms against climate change.

"He's providing ample cause to question his employment on the taxpayer dime," Horner told FOXNews.com. "He's clearly abused his platform provided to him by the taxpayer, principally by the way he's been exposed of manipulating and revising data with the strange coincidence of him always found on the side of exaggerating the warming."

Horner claimed that Hansen doctored temperature data on two occasions in 2001 and once in 2007 in attempts to show an impending climate catastrophe.

"He's creating an upward slope that really wasn't there," Horner said. "At some point you have to say these aren't mistakes."

I guess it's ok for government employees to publicly call for unlawful conduct, so long as the "side they're on" is supported by the party in power.

SMFH...

Appaholic wrote:

travelinman67 wrote:NASA's Chief Climate Scientist Stirs Controversy With Call for Civil Disobedience

Friday, February 27, 2009

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,501064,00.html



I guess it's ok for government employees to publicly call for unlawful conduct, so long as the "side they're on" is supported by the party in power.

SMFH...

Also, unless Hansen was calling on this action as a representative of NASA, then I don't see what the problem is.....it's when they use their government position to lobby for preferential treatment or consideration (like Cheney and no-bid contracts for Halliburton).....

travelinman67 wrote:So, identifying oneself as "NASA's Chief Climate Scientist" or any variation on that by every person who introduces him (Letterman, Congress, etc...) every time he speaks publicly doesn't meet your "standard".

BigApp wrote:what about Clinton/Gore and their Halliburton no-bid contracts?

hank scorpio wrote:Do you work in the energy sector, or is the climate change thing your own personal Moby-Dick?

I am just curious.

travelinman67 wrote:

Appaholic wrote:
Also, unless Hansen was calling on this action as a representative of NASA, then I don't see what the problem is.....it's when they use their government position to lobby for preferential treatment or consideration (like Cheney and no-bid contracts for Halliburton).....

So, identifying oneself as "NASA's Chief Climate Scientist" or any variation on that by every person who introduces him (Letterman, Congress, etc...) every time he speaks publicly doesn't meet your "standard".

Hansen is a cheat, a liar, an egomaniac, and his call for lawless behavior to accelerate implementation of policies that would cover up his incompetence only reveals more of their irrational proposals.

WTAG wrote:

hank scorpio wrote:Do you work in the energy sector, or is the climate change thing your own personal Moby-Dick?

I am just curious.

Bingo!

travelinman67 wrote:

WTAG wrote:
Bingo!

I am the CEO of Exxon, and receive checks from Dutch Shell, BP, Peabody and Duke Energy each month.






Seriously, the Global Warming scam is just another social engineering/wealth redistribution scheme. So long as the MSM and social engineering advocates seem to think they can pull this off by shouting "consensus" to drown out the voices of legitimate science, I will continue to shout right back.
When the dust has settled on this scam, I will not finish shouting until the crooks and liars like Al Gore have been outed and brought to justice.

It's a "duty" thing...

travelinman67 wrote:

WTAG wrote:
Bingo!

I am the CEO of Exxon, and receive checks from Dutch Shell, BP, Peabody and Duke Energy each month.






Seriously, the Global Warming scam is just another social engineering/wealth redistribution scheme. So long as the MSM and social engineering advocates seem to think they can pull this off by shouting "consensus" to drown out the voices of legitimate science, I will continue to shout right back.
When the dust has settled on this scam, I will not finish shouting until the crooks and liars like Al Gore have been outed and brought to justice.

It's a "duty" thing...

WTAG wrote:

travelinman67 wrote:
I am the CEO of Exxon, and receive checks from Dutch Shell, BP, Peabody and Duke Energy each month.






Seriously, the Global Warming scam is just another social engineering/wealth redistribution scheme. So long as the MSM and social engineering advocates seem to think they can pull this off by shouting "consensus" to drown out the voices of legitimate science, I will continue to shout right back.
When the dust has settled on this scam, I will not finish shouting until the crooks and liars like Al Gore have been outed and brought to justice.

It's a "duty" thing...

More power to you, T-Man. I can respect a guy who fights for a cause he strongly believes in, even if I don't necessarily agree with his reasoning.

D1B wrote:

WTAG wrote:
More power to you, T-Man. I can respect a guy who fights for a cause he strongly believes in, even if I don't necessarily agree with his reasoning.

Tman aint stupid. His reasoning is sound, in a tabloid conspiracy sense - meaning it's plausible but not very likely. The science of dorks aside, the ocean of visible evidence of rapid global warming is beginning to crush him. Like McPalin and the republican party, he has once again put his eggs in the wrong basket.

Global warming will save our economy and save our grandchildren's lives.

...according to a new study, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades.

Earth's climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and a heat surplus that should have cranked up the planetary thermostat.

"This is nothing like anything we've seen since 1950," Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. "Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La Ninas. This current cooling doesn't have one."

Instead, Swanson and colleague Anastasios Tsonis think a series of climate processes have aligned, conspiring to chill the climate. In 1997 and 1998, the tropical Pacific Ocean warmed rapidly in what Swanson called a "super El Nino event." It sent a shock wave through the oceans and atmosphere, jarring their circulation patterns into unison.

How does this square with temperature records from 2005-2007, by some measurements among the warmest years on record? When added up with the other four years since 2001, Swanson said the overall trend is flat, even though temperatures should have gone up by 0.2 degrees Centigrade (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) during that time.

"It is possible that a fraction of the most recent rapid warming since the 1970's was due to a free variation in climate," Isaac Held of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Princeton, New Jersey wrote in an email to Discovery News. "Suggesting that the warming might possibly slow down or even stagnate for a few years before rapid warming commences again."

Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years. But he warned that it's just a hiccup, and that humans' penchant for spewing greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us.
"When the climate kicks back out of this state, we'll have explosive warming," Swanson said. "Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be very aggressive."

D1B wrote:

travelinman67 wrote:
I am the CEO of Exxon, and receive checks from Dutch Shell, BP, Peabody and Duke Energy each month.






Seriously, the Global Warming scam is just another social engineering/wealth redistribution scheme. So long as the MSM and social engineering advocates seem to think they can pull this off by shouting "consensus" to drown out the voices of legitimate science, I will continue to shout right back.
When the dust has settled on this scam, I will not finish shouting until the crooks and liars like Al Gore have been outed and brought to justice.

It's a "duty" thing...

Yeah, this global warming hoax is world wide conspiracy of propellar-heads, leaders of NASA and countless other highly respected orgs, great american and world universities and major industrialized nations to destroy America, the world economy and bring free market capitalism to it knees - for no good reason other than a continuing "HUGE" goverment or university pay check. Meanwhile the poor barons of fossil fuel flounder helplessly in a sea of lies spread by said dorks and are relying on the american republican party to fight for them.

travelinman67 wrote:

D1B wrote:
Tman aint stupid. His reasoning is sound, in a tabloid conspiracy sense - meaning it's plausible but not very likely. The science of dorks aside, the ocean of visible evidence of rapid global warming is beginning to crush him. Like McPalin and the republican party, he has once again put his eggs in the wrong basket.

Global warming will save our economy and save our grandchildren's lives.

D1B...my straight man...

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/0 ... pause.html

Global Warming: On Hold?

Michael Reilly
Discovery News March 2, 2009

...according to a new study, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades.

Earth's climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and a heat surplus that should have cranked up the planetary thermostat.

"This is nothing like anything we've seen since 1950," Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. "Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La Ninas. This current cooling doesn't have one."

Instead, Swanson and colleague Anastasios Tsonis think a series of climate processes have aligned, conspiring to chill the climate. In 1997 and 1998, the tropical Pacific Ocean warmed rapidly in what Swanson called a "super El Nino event." It sent a shock wave through the oceans and atmosphere, jarring their circulation patterns into unison.

How does this square with temperature records from 2005-2007, by some measurements among the warmest years on record? When added up with the other four years since 2001, Swanson said the overall trend is flat, even though temperatures should have gone up by 0.2 degrees Centigrade (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) during that time.

"It is possible that a fraction of the most recent rapid warming since the 1970's was due to a free variation in climate," Isaac Held of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Princeton, New Jersey wrote in an email to Discovery News. "Suggesting that the warming might possibly slow down or even stagnate for a few years before rapid warming commences again."

Swanson thinks the trend could continue for up to 30 years. But he warned that it's just a hiccup, and that humans' penchant for spewing greenhouse gases will certainly come back to haunt us.
"When the climate kicks back out of this state, we'll have explosive warming," Swanson said. "Thirty years of greenhouse gas radiative forcing will still be there and then bang, the warming will return and be very aggressive."

"Oyez, Oyez, Oyez.
The Alarmists, now proven wrong. Have decided to sing a different song.
Like radioman Bell's alien. They forever spin yarns to flesh out mans sin.
Their pseudo "science" run amuck. Everforward, alas, they escalate the mind fv(k.
For the perceived threat they truly wish to stop..."separation of classes". Belies their genuine stature in society..."braying Jackasses".
God Bless King Obama"



Tman's Pseudo Science Translator/Rationalization Deconstructor:

Pseudo-science speak: "...was due to a free variation in climate..."
Deconstructed Rationalization/Translation: "...we make this sh!t up as we go..."

D1B wrote:Global warming - Tman
Catholic Church - D1B