[Vision2020] Worldwatch Institute: Government Censorship of Science: "They made a mistake when they tried to mess with him."

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5794<http://www.grist.org/article/a-climate-hero-an-outspoken-truth/>

>From website above:

*Hansen remained relatively quiet during those years and instead focused on
his research. That quickly changed when he delivered a
speech<http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2005/Keeling_20051206.pdf>to the
American Geophysical Union in December 2005. In addition to
announcing that the year would prove to be the hottest on record, Hansen
warned that the rise in sea levels was evidence that humans were causing
global climate instability. "Jim took a step beyond that usual dissonance in
the scientific community. He said ‘six to eight feet increase in sea level,
I call that dangerous, don't you?'" says Rick Piltz, director of Climate
Science Watch, a watchdog program of the Government Accountability Project.

The speech, which received widespread media attention, led White
House-appointed NASA administrators to silence Hansen and other scientists.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), influenced by
ExxonMobil lobbyists, singled out Clinton administration-appointed federal
scientists who could be "removed from their positions of influence," according
to a released memo<http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html>.
Among the "removed" scientists was former IPCC chair Robert
Watson<http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg17423392.400>.
American Petroleum Institute attorney Philip Cooney was appointed
chief-of-staff of the CEQ. He would repeatedly edit government
reports<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/politics/08climate.html>on
climate change in an effort to lessen the certainty of the science.

At NASA, orders authorized by administration-appointed public relations
officers "reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change
science," an agency
investigation<http://oig.nasa.gov/investigations/OI_STI_Summary.pdf>stated
recently. Climate scientists were not allowed to conduct media
interviews without prior approval. Hansen had to remove the 2005 temperature
data from NASA's website. Even Hansen's daily schedule suddenly required
prior consent.

Hansen decided he had seen enough. He sent an e-mail in January 2006 about
the NASA constraints to New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin, who
first uncovered
the restrictions<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>.
During an interview on the CBS program 60
Minutes<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml>,
Hansen said, "In my more than three decades in the government I've never
witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with
the public."

Federal scientists, from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), and other agencies, have since acknowledged that
their climate findings were also being repressed. "[Hansen] did a great deal
to help unmask the Bush administration's collusion with the global warming
disinformation campaign," said Piltz, who helped expose the White
House<http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2005/jun/policy/pt_piltz.html>when
he publicly resigned from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.
"He's a bit like a lone wolf. Nobody can tell him what to say or what to do.
They made a mistake when they tried to mess with him."

Today Hansen rallies openly for drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. He
writes personal
letters<http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/4/14/234153/177>to
governors urging them not to approve new coal-fired power plants in
their
states. He decries the increased role of fossil fuel lobbyists in American
politics - once testifying to
Congress<http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070319105800-43018.pdf>that
NASA's mission had apparently become to "protect special interests'
backside."
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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