Oil Executive Leads Attack on Climate Scientist Jim Hansen

Oil executive H. Leighton Steward is helping a group of former NASA employees push a letter attacking climate scientist James Hansen (sub. req.), head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies:

Leighton Steward, a retired oil industry official who is chairman of the nonprofit groups Plants Need CO2 and CO2 is Green, said the coalition formed a few weeks ago. He had given presentations to the NASA retirees last year meant to underscore that empirical data don't echo the dire predictions of climate modeling espoused by Hansen and others.

"We've been trying to tell people that there's a lot of great benefit in CO2 in the atmosphere," he explained to POLITICO. Steward emphasized that he did not organize the coalition of NASA retirees nor is he a spokesman for them.

First, the obvious: The "extra CO2 is good for plants" argument is completely nuts, unless you enjoy wildfires and think Virginia Beach would look better under 30 to 90 meters of seawater.

As for H. Leighton, I know why he likes to call himself "retired" - makes him seem like he's not the active part of Big Oil that he really is - but I'm not clear why Politico reporter Darren Goode repeats it here. Steward is a member of the board of directors of oil & gas company EOG Resources, where he's made millions of dollars.

H. Leighton is also trying to have it both ways on ownership of the letter. He told Goode he didn't organize it & isn't a spokesman, but hours later he emailed his PlantsNeedCO2.org list bragging about "our announcements" and media appearances:

Our announcements below include the actual letter and signatories. The letter speaks for itself.  We will update this with media interviews in which we are fortunate to participate.  

The list itself also deserves some scrutiny. I picked out just one name, the only listed "meteorologist," Thomas (Tom) Wysmuller, who's listed as "Johnson Space Center, Meteorologist, 5 years." But a quick Google search turns up Wysmuller's website, which says "at different times in his life, Tom has been" both "a Meteorologist" and "a NASA Intern." If Wysmuller was a NASA meteorologist for 5 years, why wouldn't his own website say so? Another Wysmuller bio that says had a "dual major in sociology and political science, and a concentration in meteorology at NYU" - how meteorology fits under sociology & poli sci, I'm not sure - and that he was an "an intern and jack-of-all-trades for NASA."

If the letter so significantly overstates the credentials of the one signer I looked into, how many other overstatements are there? They didn't exactly strike one climate scientist as experts:

Texas A&M atmospheric sciences professor Andrew Dessler told POLITICO that he did in fact meet with the 75 or so retirees at Goddard last October — along with University of Houston professor Barry Lefer and fellow Texas A&M professor John Nielsen-Gammon — and came away less than impressed. 

“These people are well meaning, but they don’t seem to realize that climate science takes years of full-time work to actually get to know,” he said. “They really don’t understand anything about the climate system. They understand less than the first-year grad students that come out of my classes.”

We're well past the point of needing fancy computer models to understand global warming - just look at the thousands of temperature records that fell in March. It's time for action.

NASA's James Hansen: Continued Climate Inaction "Immoral"

Here's a new TED Talk from Dr. James Hansen, NASA climate scientist. Dr. Hansen explains how he wrote a paper in 1981 predicting "the 21st century would see shifting climate zones, creation of drought prone regions in North America and Asia, erosion of ice sheets, rising sea levels, and opening of the fabled Northwest passage. All of these impacts have since either happened or are now well underway."



If you're at the office and can't watch video, read a good summary of Hansen's talk from ClimateProgress.org.

It's a stark reminder that while polluters & their allies accuse climate scientists of being "alarmist," the predictions of climate scientists to this point have more often been too conservative. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just issued its Fourth Assessment in 2007, but many climate scientists already think its predictions were far too cautious given our rapid climate changes and the continued acceleration of global carbon pollution.

By the way, are you familiar with TED Talks? The acronym stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design and the organization describes itself simply as a "nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading." Their podcasts are indispensable - brilliant ideas explained in easy to understand terms in around 15 minutes.

1,252 Arrested at White House Protesting Tar Sands: Is President Obama Listening?

More than 200 people were arrested Saturday in the final day of the civil disobedience urging President Obama to reject a proposed tar sands pipeline. More from TarSandsAction.org:

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline has become the most important environmental decision facing President Obama before the 2012 election and sparked nationwide opposition, from Nebraska ranchers to former Obama campaigners. A petition with 617,428 names opposing the pipeline will be delivered to the White House today.

Over the course of the two-week sit-in 1,252 people were arrested, including top climate scientists, landowners from Texas and Nebraska, former Obama for America staffers, First Nations leaders from Canada, and notable individuals including Bill McKibben, former White House official Gus Speth, NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen, actor Daryl Hannah, filmmaker Josh Fox, and author Naomi Klein.

“Back home we are fighting to protect our land and water. This week, we decided to bring that fight to the President’s doorstep,” said Jane Kleeb, Director of BOLD Nebraska, who led a delegation of Nebraskans who were arrested this morning. “We are acting on our values and expect our President to act as well.”

Despite the 1,252 arrests and about a thousand more people rallying in Lafayette Park, the White House is continuing its code of silence: "We heard not one word from them," McKibben told the New York Times.

For more details, photos and a video from Saturday's protest, check out my full post over at Blue Virginia.

Why Won't McAuliffe Say No to Dirty Coal?

I spent a lot of time thinking about which candidate to support in the Democratic primary for Virginia governor. I was on the fence until Terry McAuliffe pushed me off with his refusal to say no to the proposed massive new $6 billion coal-fired power plant in Surry. Brian Moran may have stayed quiet through the debate about the new coal-fired power plant in Wise County, but on Surry, he's taking a clear stand against it.

Now there's a video that connects the dots on McAuliffe and his continuing support for dirty coal, putting him in stark contrast to climate activists like Al Gore and James Hansen (there's also a special appearance from The Green Miles):



You can watch my full clip on Why "Clean" Coal is Like Dragons & Leprechauns at my YouTube channel.

(Note - I don't know who put together the McAuliffe video and though I certainly don't object to the use of my clip, I wasn't asked whether I wanted to be in it.)