<div><a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5794">http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5794</a><a href="http://www.grist.org/article/a-climate-hero-an-outspoken-truth/"></a></div>
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<div>From website above:</div>
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<div><strong>Hansen remained relatively quiet during those years and instead focused on his research. That quickly changed when he delivered a <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2005/Keeling_20051206.pdf">speech</a> 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. </strong></div>
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<p>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," <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html">according to a released memo</a>. Among the "removed" scientists was former IPCC chair <a href="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg17423392.400">Robert Watson</a>. American Petroleum Institute attorney Philip Cooney was appointed chief-of-staff of the CEQ. He would repeatedly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/politics/08climate.html">edit government reports</a> on climate change in an effort to lessen the certainty of the science. </p>
<p>At NASA, orders authorized by administration-appointed public relations officers "reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science," an agency <a href="http://oig.nasa.gov/investigations/OI_STI_Summary.pdf">investigation</a> 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. </p>
<p>Hansen decided he had seen enough. He sent an e-mail in January 2006 about the NASA constraints to <i>New York Times</i> reporter Andrew Revkin, who first <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">uncovered the restrictions</a>. During an <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml">interview on the CBS program <i>60 Minutes</i></a>, 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." </p>
<p>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 <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2005/jun/policy/pt_piltz.html">helped expose the White House</a> 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."<b> </b></p>
<p>Today Hansen rallies openly for drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. He <a href="http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/4/14/234153/177">writes personal letters</a> 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 <a href="http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070319105800-43018.pdf">testifying to Congress</a> that NASA's mission had apparently become to "protect special interests' backside." </p>
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<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div>