Gobal Climate Change Hoax

Hansen's climate views under fire from NASA retirees / POLITICO Pro, By Darren Goode - 4/10/12 5:36 AM EDT

Dozens of NASA retirees, including former Sen. Harrison Schmitt and seven other astronauts, want to make it clear that outspoken climate scientist James Hansen doesn't speak for them.

The 49 NASA retirees don't mention the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies by name in their March 28 letter to agency Administrator Charles Bolden. But their target is plainly Hansen, one of the nation's best-known advocates of taking action on man-made climate change.

"As former NASA employees, we feel that NASA's advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate drivers is inappropriate," they wrote. "We request that NASA refrain from including unproven and unsupported remarks in its future releases and websites on this subject."

They added: "At risk is damage to the exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA's current or former scientists and employees, and even the reputation of science itself."

The signers include Schmitt (R-N.M.), a geologist who during 1972's Apollo 17 mission became the last man to set foot on the moon.

The letter specifically targets the Goddard Institute.

"We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data," they wrote. "With hundreds of well-known climate scientists and tens of thousands of other scientists publicly declaring their disbelief in the catastrophic forecasts, coming particularly from the GISS leadership, it is clear that the science is NOT settled."

Hansen has been a leading voice for years about man's role in causing climate change. News reports say he plans to call for a worldwide carbon tax while accepting an award in Scotland on Tuesday, and he has described the issue as a cause on par with ending slavery.

The letter to Bolden recommends that additional information "regarding the science behind our concern" can be gained by contacting, among others, Schmitt, who has become an outspoken climate skeptic in recent years.

"I don't think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," Schmitt told The Associated Press in 2009 before speaking at a climate change conference hosted by The Heartland Institute, a leading think tank for climate skeptics.

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.

He said Tom Moser — a retired director of the space station program and 28-year NASA veteran who also signed the letter to Bolden — invited Steward to speak at a social gathering of about 30 ex-NASA officials at Moser's Texas Hill Country home last spring. The area is a well-known retirement spot for former NASA officials.

That led to an invitation to speak to a larger group of about 75 former NASA officials at Goddard in October, Steward said.

The NASA retirees plan to examine the data that Steward and perhaps others have presented to them and make up their own minds, Steward said.

He said the retirees have invited people on the other side of the issue to talk with them as well.

"The beauty of them ... is they will be objective on this," Steward said.

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.”

Dessler — who was a senior policy analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in 2000 and wrote a book to explain how climate science “is used and misused in the policy arena,” according to his university bio — said some of those he spoke to in October “struck me as being angry at the mainstream view.” He added, "I certainly wouldn’t characterize the entire group that way."

He said he stopped corresponding by email to them because “they’ll just get mad at you” if you pick apart their theories. “The difference between them and a first-year grad student is that the first-year grad student is actually open to criticism,” Dessler said.

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