8/6/12, "Study Finds More of Earth Is Hotter and Says Global Warming Is at Work," NY Times, Justin Gillis
"The paper says...that scientists can claim with near certainty that events like the Texas heat wave last year, the Russian heat wave of 2010 and the European heat wave of 2003 would not have happened without the planetary warming caused by the human release of greenhouse gases.
Those claims, which go beyond the established scientific consensus about the role of climate change in causing weather extremes, were advanced by James E. Hansen, a prominent NASA climate scientist, and two co-authors in a scientific paper published online on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....
The findings provoked an immediate split among his scientific colleagues, however....
The divide is characteristic of the strong reactions that Dr. Hansen has elicited playing dual roles in the debate over climate change and how to combat it. As the head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, he is one of NASA’s principal climate scientists and the primary custodian of its records of the earth’s temperature. Yet he has also become an activist who marches in protests to demand new government policies on energy and climate.
The latter role — he has been arrested four times at demonstrations, always while on leave from his government job —"...
- Ed. note: A distinction without a difference. He was still an employee of the US taxpayer, guaranteed a job whenever he wanted to return, with no interruption in accumulation of pension and benefits. Was Hansen also "on leave" when he collected at least $900,000 in prize money for influencing governments in efforts to divert billions of taxpayer dollars to man-caused global warming?
(continuing, NY Times): "has made him a hero to the political left, and particularly to college students involved in climate activism. But it has discomfited some of his fellow researchers, who fear that his political activities may be sowing unnecessary doubts about his scientific findings and climate science in general....
But researchers have struggled with the question of whether any particular heat wave or storm can be definitively linked to human-induced climate change....
The findings led his team to assert that the big heat waves and droughts of recent years were a direct consequence of climate change. The authors did not offer formal proof of the sort favored by many climate scientists, instead presenting what amounted to a circumstantial case that the background warming was the only plausible cause of those individual heat extremes.
Dr. Hansen said the heat wave and drought afflicting the country this year were also a likely consequence of climate change....
Martin P. Hoerling, a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who studies the causes of weather extremes, said he shared Dr. Hansen’s general concern about global warming. But he has in the past criticized Dr. Hansen for, in his view, exaggerating the connection between global warming and specific weather extremes. In an interview, he said he felt that Dr. Hansen had done so again.
Dr. Hoerling has published research suggesting that the 2010 Russian heat wave was largely a consequence of natural climate variability, and a forthcoming study he carried out on the Texas drought of 2011 also says natural factors were the main cause.
Dr. Hoerling contended that Dr. Hansen’s new paper confuses drought, caused primarily by a lack of rainfall, with heat waves.
“This isn’t a serious science paper,” Dr. Hoerling said. “It’s mainly about perception, as indicated by the paper’s title. Perception is not a science.”" via Climate Depot
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NASA's James Hansen has won at least $900,000 in prize money for influencing governments on global warming issues:
6/20/10, $550,000 award to Hansen in Tokyo, praised for influencing government policy, "Climate scientists awarded prestigious Blue Planet Prize," Environment News Service, Tokyo
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3/5/2001, $250,000 Heinz Award (aka 'Ketchup Money'), praised for making (alleged) science into a political issue against industry, cites special merit for doing so against George Bush.
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Hansen also deserves credit for getting George Bush #1 elected, Times Online UK article, now subscription, but I copied it when it was free:
2/10/08, "Climate scientist they could not silence," TimesOnlineUK, Jonathan Leake
"In 1989, "Called before a congressional committee hearing looking at climate change, he sent an
- advance fax to Al Gore, its chairman,
suggesting some of the questions that he would like to answer.
- “What I told them was that the written evidence submitted in my name did not contain my words. It had been rewritten by the president’s own budget office to support their own agenda.”
This time the resulting storm was so great it saw climate change catapulted into the political arena as never before.
- George Bush Sr (the father of George W Bush), who was then running for president,
- promised to “fight the greenhouse effect with the White House effect”.
From the same UK Times article, James Hansen says he owes everything to the NY Times who in 1981 put him on the front page.
- George Bush (the first) cemented Hansen's fame in 1989 by using the catastrophic 'greenhouse effect' to sensational advantage as he campaigned for US president.
Hansen arrested at White House during Keystone pipeline protest, Aug. 2011, mennonista blog, scroll down.
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