Dr. Hansen, 63, a physicist who joined the space agency in 1967, is a
leading authority on the earth's climate system.
He directs efforts to simulate the global climate on computers at the
Goddard Institute on Morningside Heights in Manhattan.
Since 1988, he has been issuing public warnings about the long-term
threat from heat-trapping emissions, dominated by carbon dioxide, that
are an unavoidable byproduct of burning coal, oil and other fossil
fuels.
He has had run-ins with politicians or their appointees in various
administrations, including budget watchers in the first Bush
administration and Vice President Al Gore.
Dr. Hansen said that nothing in 30 years equaled the push made since
early December to keep him from publicly discussing what he says are
clear-cut dangers from further delay in curbing carbon dioxide.
In several interviews with The New York Times in recent days, Dr.
Hansen said it would be irresponsible not to speak out, particularly
because NASA's mission statement includes the phrase "to understand
and protect our home planet."
He said he was particularly incensed that the directives affecting his
statements had come through informal telephone conversations and not
through formal channels, leaving no significant trails of documents.
Dr. Hansen's supervisor, Franco Einaudi, said there had been no
official "order or pressure to say shut Jim up."
But Dr. Einaudi added, "That doesn't mean I like this kind of pressure
being applied."
The fresh efforts to quiet him, Dr. Hansen said, began in a series of
calls after a lecture he gave on Dec. 6 at the annual meeting of the
American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
In the talk, he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved
with existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor
vehicles, and that without leadership by the United States, climate
change would eventually leave the earth "a different planet."
The administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but
not reverse, the growth of emissions.
After that speech and the release of data by Dr. Hansen on Dec. 15
showing that 2005 was probably the warmest year in at least a century,
officials at the headquarters of the space agency repeatedly phoned
public affairs officers, who relayed the warning to Dr. Hansen that
there would be "dire consequences" if such statements continued, those
officers and Dr. Hansen said in interviews.
Among the restrictions, according to Dr. Hansen and an internal draft
memorandum he provided to The Times, was that his supervisors could
stand in for him in any news media interviews.
In one call, George Deutsch, a recently appointed public affairs
officer at NASA headquarters, rejected a request from a producer at
National Public Radio to interview Dr. Hansen, said Leslie McCarthy, a
public affairs officer responsible for the Goddard Institute.
Citing handwritten notes taken during the conversation, Ms. McCarthy
said Mr. Deutsch called N.P.R. "the most liberal" media outlet in the
country.
She said that in that call and others Mr. Deutsch said his job was "to
make the president look good" and that as a White House appointee that
might be Mr. Deutsch's priority.
But she added:
"I'm a career civil servant and Jim Hansen is a scientist. That's not
our job. That's not our mission. The inference was that Hansen was
disloyal."
From The New York Times, 1/29/06:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?ex=1296190800&en=28e236da0977ee7f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has
tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month
calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked
to global warming.
The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that
officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to
review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site
and requests for interviews from journalists.
Dr. Hansen said he would ignore the restrictions.
"They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to
the public," he said.
Dean Acosta, deputy assistant administrator for public affairs at the
space agency, said there was no effort to silence Dr. Hansen.
"That's not the way we operate here at NASA," he said.
"We promote openness and we speak with the facts."
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Uh huh
Harry
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