[greenyes] Administration Approach to Climate Change Scientists

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

NYTIMES


October 26, 2004
THE ENVIRONMENT
NASA Expert Criticizes Bush on Global Warming Policy
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

 top NASA climate expert who twice briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on 
global warming plans to criticize the administration's approach to the issue 
in a lecture at the University of Iowa tonight and say that a senior 
administration official told him last year not to discuss dangerous 
consequences of rising temperatures.

The expert, Dr. James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for 
Space Studies in Manhattan, expects to say that the Bush administration has 
ignored growing evidence that sea levels could rise significantly unless 
prompt action is taken to reduce heat-trapping emissions from smokestacks 
and tailpipes.

Many academic scientists, including dozens of Nobel laureates, have been 
criticizing the administration over its handling of climate change and other 
complex scientific issues. But Dr. Hansen, first in an interview with The 
New York Times a week ago and again in his planned lecture today, is the 
only leading scientist to speak out so publicly while still in the employ of 
the government.

In the talk, Dr. Hansen, who describes himself as "moderately conservative, 
middle-of-the-road" and registered in Pennsylvania as an independent, plans 
to say that he will vote for Senator John Kerry, while also criticizing some 
of Mr. Kerry's positions, particularly his pledge to keep nuclear waste out 
of Nevada.

He will acknowledge that one of the accolades he has received for his work 
on climate change is a $250,000 Heinz Award, given in 2001 by a foundation 
run by Teresa Heinz Kerry, Mr. Kerry's wife. The awards are given to people 
who advance causes promoted by Senator John Heinz, the Pennsylvania 
Republican who was Mrs. Heinz Kerry's first husband.

But in an interview yesterday, Dr. Hansen said he was confident that the 
award had had "no impact on my evaluation of the climate problem or on my 
political leanings."

In a draft of the talk, a copy of which Dr. Hansen provided to The Times 
yesterday, he wrote that President Bush's climate policy, which puts off 
consideration of binding cuts in such emissions until 2012, was likely to be 
too little too late.

Actions to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions "are not only feasible but make 
sense for other reasons, including our economic well-being and national 
security," Dr. Hansen wrote. "Delay of another decade, I argue, is a 
colossal risk."

In the speech, Dr. Hansen also says that last year, after he gave a 
presentation on the dangers of human-caused, or anthropogenic, climate 
shifts to Sean O'Keefe, the NASA administrator, "the administrator 
interrupted me; he told me that I should not talk about dangerous 
anthropogenic interference, because we do not know enough or have enough 
evidence for what would constitute dangerous anthropogenic interference."

After conferring with Mr. O'Keefe, Glenn Mahone, the administrator's 
spokesman, said Mr. O'Keefe had a completely different recollection of the 
meeting. "To say the least, Sean is certain that he did not admonish or even 
suggest that there be a throttling back of research efforts" by Dr. Hansen 
or his team, Mr. Mahone said.

Dr. Franco Einaudi, director of the NASA Earth Sciences Directorate at the 
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Dr. Hansen's supervisor, 
said he was at the meeting between Dr. Hansen and Mr. O'Keefe. Dr. Einaudi 
confirmed that Mr. O'Keefe had interrupted the presentation to say that 
these were "delicate issues" and there was a lot of uncertainty about them. 
But, he added: "Whether it is obvious to take that as an order or not is a 
question of judgment. Personally, I did not take it as an order."

Dr. John H. Marburger III, the science adviser to the president, said he was 
not privy to any exchanges between Dr. Hansen and the administrator of NASA. 
But he denied that the White House was playing down the risks posed by 
climate change.

"President Bush has long recognized the serious implications of climate 
change, the role of human activity, and our responsibility to reduce 
emissions,'' Dr. Marburger said in an e-mailed statement. "He has put 
forward a series of policy initiatives including a commitment to reduce the 
greenhouse gas intensity of our economy.''

"..."

_________________________
Peter Anderson, President
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Ph: (608) 231-1100
Fax: (608) 233-0011
Cell: (608) 698-1314
eMail: anderson@no.address
web: www.recycleworlds.net