NASA scientist James Hansen, last seen cooking the books on a global warming temperature study, thinks that we should forget about democracy and take part in "direct action:"
Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said.
James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working," he said.
Speaking on the eve of joining a protest against the headquarters of power firm E.ON in Coventry, Hansen said: "The first action that people should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash.
"The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes. So, I'm not surprised that people are getting frustrated. I think that peaceful demonstration is not out of order, because we're running out of time."
Hansen said he was taking part in the Coventry demonstration tomorrow because he wants a worldwide moratorium on new coal power stations. E.ON wants to build such a station at Kingsnorth in Kent, an application that energy and the climate change minister Ed Miliband recently delayed. "I think that peaceful actions that attempt to draw society's attention to the issue are not inappropriate," Hansen said.
He added that a scientific meeting in Copenhagen last week had made clear the "urgency of the science and the inaction taken by governments".
Hansen has so much dishonesty in his background, the question of why anyone takes him seriously is answered by the fact that only global warming advocates believe him. Not only did he present a study of temperatures where a blogger was able to spot his error, but his other major claim to fame - a satellite that measured earth's temperatures and "confirmed" global warming models" - actually did no such thing. The original readings showed a cooling in the troposphere in direct contradiction to the models.
But that was before Hansen came back with the idea that the satellite was suffering from "orbital decay" and that if that were taken into account, magically, the models and observations agreed.
Skeptics giggled at this subterfuge but Hansen continued on. Now he's out waving placards against a new power plant. You might also recall that Hansen advocates putting the CEO's of fossil fuel companies on trial for "crimes against humanity and nature."
His latest idea belongs with the rest of his work - in the dustbin of history.
Share
