What is your opinion of Dr. James Hansen?

Question

Some call James Hansen (head of NASA GISS) one of the world's foremost climate scientists.

Others call him a "political hack" or "fascist"

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aij9luZzvHlRZ0gEclymgonsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080820151504AAhC2ny&show=7#profile-info-Zs3B6Lwbaa

Some facts:

In 1988 James Hansen made a global climate model which predicted that the planet would continue to warm. The model so far has proven to be highly accurate. Especially considering the technology available in 1988 and the amount climatology has advanced since then.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/hansens-1988-projections/

Hansen has also made some controversial statements, for example saying that the CEOs of oil companies who have purposefully run campaigns of misinformation about global warming should be tried in court.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/23/fossilfuels.climatechange

Some have accused Hansen of taking political bribes, but these accusations have proven to be entirely unsubstantiated and false.

So what is your opinion of Dr. James Hansen, and why?

Answer 1

Scientific HERO!

With the latest ice break up in Greenland,and the very weird T.S.Fay,what's next?

Answer 2

Hansen is outspoken, experienced, and knowledgeable in his field.  He seems a bit of the loose cannon, if you will, shooting from the lip, but his comments are generally accurate and intended to broadcast information he believes is not always getting voiced elsewhere.  He knows how to play the game in that another expert saying much the same thing won't get media attention, but he will.

Many people in many fields keep their head down and their mouths shut.  That he doesn't do this makes him stand out.  He's obviously not out to win any popularity contests.  He's obviously not reluctant to speak his mind.  And he's got a lot of information packed up there.

A hack he's not.  A fascist?  I doubt it.  Is he a man I'd want on my team at this point in time?  Absolutely.

Answer 3

He's a lot smarter than anyone on this post. Some people have a problem with smart people telling them what they don't want to hear. What makes deniers think they know what they're talking about, while not part of any scientific study and little scientific knowledge as compared to those in the field, is a psychological question.

Answer 4

LMAO panurge. "Very weird hurricane fay"? Category 2 hurricanes are now weird? The fact that it stalled, is in no way a connection to Global Warming. Hahahahahah.............very weird hurricane fay.....ahhh jeez.

EDIT: Was it even a hurricane?

Answer 5

Dana his chart uses fabricated data that was adjusted upwards from the real numbers in order for them to match the Co2 increase chart. Those temperature's need to be adjusted down again as NASA has shown with the revised charts published recently.  So I would not trust either Mann or Hansen any farther than I trust Gore and that is as far as I can throw a Sherman tank with my bare hands.

Answer 6

Predicting, 90-100 years into a warming period, that the planet would continue to warm, isn't exactly the most difficult thing in the world - the MWP began in the late 800s and peaked in the 1100s.   There was a warm period - not as warm as today but warm - during the high Roman empire and that lasted over three centuries.   The Holocene Maximum lasted thousands of years.    

On his more difficult predictions such as how much warming how fast, and whether or not the next year would break 1998 as the "warmest year on record," he's failed - consistently.

And back in the 1970s he ran the numbers that were used by the "handful" of scientists pushing "global cooling" - if "global cooling was just a couple of guys with bad data," as Bob suggests, then Hansen was one of the guys with bad data.

And declaring that people who take the opposite position should be "tried" (for what - heresy?) is ludicrous.

Answer 7

I think he should resign. Political activism is fine, but not while you are a government employed scientist.

Answer 8

I think he should be demoted to a nurse or an orderly. I know a Doctor and he's no Doctor.

Answer 9

Hansen is a hack.

So you are saying that someone who says the earth is warming when in fact, the earth has been warming for the last 15,000 years is a genius? h**l, even I could make that prediction. Let's see, temps are going up, so I will say the trend will continue. No genius there. The funny thing, his predictions are so off base as to be wrong. He has the temps skyrocketing, when in fact, for the last 10 years they are in decline. He had a 50/50% chance, and for the most recent history he has blown in.

Compare Hansen the climate hack ,to a real scientist like Roy Spencer. Dr. Spencer also worked for NASA but during the Clinton years. He did not agree wit hteh Adins position, but kept his mouth shut because he realized who his bosses were. Only after he quit did he voice his ideas. Hansen on the other and, whines that he is being censored when he has given over 1,000 interviews. I think Bush may need to up security if this is Hansen's idea of censorship.

As for his latest retarded statement, he should be fired for this one. To come out and say that a CEO (or anyone) who is providing us a service should be tried is really to stupid to be working any where but McDonalds. So let's say he gets his way and all CEO's from oil co's are arrested. This effectively means the oil industry is shut down. No oil industry, no oil. No oil, our economy comes to a screeching halt. No ambulances, no police, no nothing. Can you get to work with out a car? No planes flying, reduced power (no electricity), no internet....Do you see how truely stupid his idea is. The guy should have shut up and done his job. Actually, that is bad. That would give him more time to adjust the temps to suit his agenda.

Answer 10

I think he's about as credible as you and all the other brainwashed folk.

Answer 11

He is wrong, he is dangerously misleading people about what the future of earths climate has in store, and he doesn't understand economics. The dogma and fear of generating CO2 has caused the increased use of natural gas over coal  for the generation of electricity, which has driven up the price of oil & natural gas.  This means that the oil companies are benefiting from the global warming scare more than any other market sector. The reason that CEO's of oil companies don't buy the global warming theory, is because the oil companies are full of people that don't believe in it. Do you think people that drill and produce oil & gas miles below the surface and located in water 1000's of feet deep are stupid? Do you realize the super science involved in such accomplishments?

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