Hansen, NYT Deserve Praise for Standing up to Censorship

authordefault
on

In 1988, against the background of Yellowstone National Park in flames, James Hansen, of NASA‘s Goddard Space Center, went before Congress to declare that “global warming is at hand.”

Last month, Hansen wrote:

The Earth’s temperature… is now passing through the peak level of the Holocene, a period of relatively stable climate that has existed for more than 10,000 years. Further warming of more than one degree Celsius will make the Earth warmer than it has been in a million years… That implies practically a different planet. …The Earth’s climate is nearing, but has not passed, a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to avoid climate change with far-ranging undesirable consequences.”

But between Hansen’s 1988 statement and his most recent one, the Bush Administration has erected a bureaucratic wall between government-funded climate scientists and the press and public. Until the past few years, reporters routinely called scientists at government agencies directly to discuss their findings.

Today, such interviews must be cleared with agency PIO specialists who routinely listen in on the interviews, make notes and, in some cases, terminate conversations.

So Hansen’s statements in the lead article of Sunday’s New York Times deserve special appreciation: both for Hansen’s candor and refusal to be intimidated but also for some fancy footwork performed by the Times’ Andrew Revkin, who essentially shamed NASA‘s public affairs officials into allowing Hansen to speak candidly and transparently for the record.

Related Posts

From ‘innovation sprints’ to spritzers, polluting agri-giants have so many ways to influence climate outcomes.

From ‘innovation sprints’ to spritzers, polluting agri-giants have so many ways to influence climate outcomes.
Analysis
on

Report shows oil and gas companies are spreading confusion over the science of climate change solutions, leading to “misguided” ideas behind CCS use.

Report shows oil and gas companies are spreading confusion over the science of climate change solutions, leading to “misguided” ideas behind CCS use.
Analysis
on

The devil is in the details, and at this year’s UN global climate conference, the details start with words like “unabated,” and “operational.”

The devil is in the details, and at this year’s UN global climate conference, the details start with words like “unabated,” and “operational.”
Opinion
on

Now it’s so obvious that the system is failing, progress is finally possible.

Now it’s so obvious that the system is failing, progress is finally possible.