Jim Hansen Arrested For Yelling or Something (Again)
Top NASA scientist arrested (again) in White House protest, Fox
“NASA’s top climate scientist and government official James Hansen was arrested Wednesday outside the White House — at least the fourth arrest now for the scientist. Hansen, a controversial and highly vocal proponent of the argument that man’s actions have dramatically affected the planet’s climate, is the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies — a position for which he earns a $180,000 taxpayer-paid salary … a NASA spokesman told FoxNews.com after a 2011 arrest that what Hansen does in his own time is none of the government’s business. “The agency doesn’t comment on personnel matters,” Ed Campion, a spokesman for parent organization Goddard Space Flight Center, told FoxNews.com.”
James Hansen Arrested For Yelling, earlier post
Keith’s note: Hansen must have a lot of unused annual leave …
he made his point
I think our man in climatology would want to stay out of the hoosgow or the cooler as it were. Kinda hard to tell what the weather is like when you’re playing 52 pickup with your cellie Bubba.
Hansen shivved the first guy who fronted him, the first time he was arrested, now the other inmates show him respect. True story, I heard it from a friend of a friend of mine.
That was Benny’s cousin Guido, wasn’t it?
I ain’t sayin’ nuttin’ copper.
OK, you can go; but we’re watching you!
I agree with Hansen’s position but i don’t think demonstrations of this sort are going to convince decisionmakers. Edit: In this case I actually think he is off base. The tar sands are heavy oil, but they are oil, not coal, and in today’s market worth a fortune. Canada is going to extract the oil and sell it, and the refining can be done in the US or in Japan and China. That’s the only choice we have. The environmental impact of pipelines is lower than other forms of transportation and the few spills have been minor compared with offshore blowouts and tanker groundings. No worldwide greenhouse gas emissions will be mitigated by not building the pipeline.
I respect and agree with his position, but these kind of outbursts do not contribute to a constructive discourse. This is the type of behavior I would expect from the likes of Marco Rubio, Ted Nugent and other Republican demagogues.
Yeah. Marco Rubio. That damned rabble rouser.
“I respect and agree with his position, but these kind of outbursts do not contribute to a constructive discourse.”
I disagree based on the evidence of making a reasonable scientifically sound argument to everyone for decades. What did that get us? Governments and corporations and the United Nations confuse quietness with weakness. Just as with the struggle for civil rights, it has to get ruder and louder and more uncompromising to have an effect. I wish that were not so, but the evidence suggests it is.
A lot of people have said, I agree with him, but…
Whether his methods are appropriate or not is a question I’ll leave to the philosophers in the crowd. I think it’s worth pointing out, though, that for every Hansen type trying to keep attention focused on this issue, there are many millions of people doing nothing at all about the problem, including me. Right or wrong, I salute him.
“a position for which he earns a $180,000 taxpayer-paid salary”
“Hansen is essentially taking pot shots at his own employer.”
“He was arrested alongside actress Daryl Hannah; Adam Werbach, the
founder of the Sierra Club; Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org; Julian
Bond, former president of the NAACP”
Gotta love that FOX News. They’re always sure to point out the most damning arguments against this climate-change stuff.
He’s been there more than 15 years. It’s kind of hard not to have lots of unused annual leave.
Hansen has distinguished himself by being inducted into that exclusive club : Fox News whipping boys. Remember, with Fox news, everything is political except politics which is personal.
As a Sidebar, last night on PBS came a spectacular episode of NOVA—” Earth from Space ” , a magical 2-hour journey thru contemporary earth resources satellite imagery , with some occasional anthropo context. I could not help but note the extreme irony at the end when the usual PBS underwriter credits rolled…” Funding for NOVA provuded by the David H. Koch Foundation ” . yes, THAT David Koch …the Texas Tea Party billionaire who is so very anti-climate change and throws a lot of his money to climate deniers.
The White House demonstration where Hansen et al were most recently arrested was centered on the Keystone XL pipeline. The Alberta tar sands where the pipeline extracts it’s ill gotten resource is almost the worst example of corporate environmental abuse on the planet . Something Koch and Fox Noose would approve of.
Having said that , I’d be happy to do jail time with Darryl Hannah
Dewdle,
I watched “Earth From Space” last night (for those who missed it, it’s on PBS again tonight at 11:30. Note: it’s 2 hours long.)
I thought it was well done, well worth watching if you have any interest in Earth monitoring satellite technology (and some Sun monitoring as well).
The point I wanted to make is that the narrator clearly said that “most scientists” now agree that human-created negative effects on the environment were the most significant effects, far outweighing any others. And it seemed to stress greenhouse gases specifically, as opposed to just pollution in general, were the main culprit. It seems (according to this show) that we’re now well ahead of volcanoes in terms of spewing bad stuff into the atmosphere.
No matter which side of the environmental fence you’re on, it is a very informative show.
Steve
“Hansen has distinguished himself by being inducted into that exclusive club : Fox News whipping boys.”
It’s not that exclusive. It includes everyone with a government paycheck whether from a job or from benefits. And all environmentalists, every citizen of San Francisco (and sometimes the entire state of Cal. & NY) etc.
He was arrested with a bunch of Celebs protesting the Keystone Pipeline. There aren’t enough protests like this. I think there needs to be more technocrats in Washington, but we don’t seem to run / elect them. We were discussing Zubrin’s Mars Direct in our robotics class and one of the students suggested we should solve global warming first. Zubrin’s methane from CO2 is just one technology for carbon sequestration / recycling.
“I think there needs to be more technocrats in Washington“
The problem is, they’d probably all be bought off before their furniture was unpacked. Never underestimate the various types of power that oil produces.