"Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him" " NYTimes

~~ Typical of the Bushies. ~~~ TP

"Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him"
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: January 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com

"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 had come through 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.

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