US politics and government are different to ours. It would be odd indeed if a federal deputy secretary were to write and speak as Hansen has done. First, he would need the support of his Minister. Second, he would be trespassing on the electoral sphere, and the Opposition would crucify him. Third, his extreme statements would be embarrassing to the Government, even if they agreed with him.

For those who want to see a 'nuanced discussion' of these matters, the best place to go is Judith Curry's 'Climate etc' website. Look through the previous posts for 'Hansen'. WUWT (Watts Up With That) is severely critical of Hansen, RealClimate is laudatory. For my part he is a good scientist captured by what he once said, and prepared to defend it to the end. He is not the only academic ever to do that!

Hansen, of course, was an enthusiastic advocate for the 'global cooling' meme for as long as that was sustainable. He really doesn't care what kind of apocalypse he preaches, as long as it gives him the oxygen of publicity and a steady supply of generous grants. See for instance:

http://rightcounterpoints.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/james-hansen-global-warming-scientist-for-hire/

John Bennetts, why does the truth upset you so much?

Even the Climategate miscreant, Phil Jones, said that there had been no global warming for 14 years, when questioned during one of the “whitewash” Enquiries which purported to clear the authors of the emails of wrongful behaviour.

Recent research shows that there has been a cooling trend in global temperature for the past two thousand years:

“For the first time, researchers have now been able to use the data derived from tree-rings to precisely calculate a much longer-term cooling trend that has been playing out over the past 2,000 years. Their findings demonstrate that this trend involves a cooling of -0.3°C per millennium due to gradual changes to the position of the sun and an increase in the distance between the Earth and the sun.”

http://www.omsj.org/issues/global-warming/scientists-calculate-global-cooling-trend

It is not news that Hansen has acted unethically in his activism promoting the AGW scam:

“As detailed in the American Tradition Institute’s lawsuit which yielded these records, Hansen suddenly became the recipient of many, often lucrative offers of outside employment and awards after he escalated his political activism — using his NASA position as a platform, and springboard.”

http://pjmedia.com/blog/a-brief-summary-of-james-e-hansens-nasa-ethics-file/?singlepage=true

Any chance of you being influenced by facts, John?

I am amazed at JohnBennets hysterical outrage to this balanced article.

Hansen is a scaremonger and agitprop; his role in perpetuating the outrage of AGW is as culpable as anyones' has been. Just recently he wrote this piece on "extreme weather" the new scare tactic along with ocean acidification of the alarmists:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/here-comes-the-sun-chilling-verdict-on-a-climate-going-to-extremes-20120806-23q5o.html#poll

The good people at WUWT quickly noted the scientific defects of Hansen's piece:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/06/nasas-james-hansens-big-cherry-pick/#comments

None of the manifest defects of Hnsen's scare piece are picked up by the MSM; the big con of AGW has moved on to the next lie and yet we have the likes of JohnBennets rabbiting on about frogs. Well the frog isn't a frog, it's a toad and it's AGW and no princess is going to change this toad into a prince.

We have too be glad that the sun is in a slightly cooling phase? This will add just a little extra time to the window of opportunity, we still have, to reverse human caused climate change.
Yes sure, we have had some form of cyclic climate change since the dawn of human history.
And yes, the sun will eventually become too hot for planet earth and we will eventually be fried.
No need to hasten to that date with destiny, simply because a very powerful fossil fuel industry wants to protect an industry currently reaping in over 4 trillion per.
And yes there is a lot of confusion about climate change and its causes. Even though the sun is in a waning phase, the ice melt seems to be exponentially increasing?
Many Himalayas communities are almost totally reliant on glacial melt water for all their drinking and agricultural needs, and at the present rate of melt, it will be gone inside twenty years?
Thank goodness we are experiencing a cooling phase? Otherwise, it could be gone inside ten?
And the previously unheard of Northwest passage is becoming a regular summer shortcut for northern shipping.
Something is actually happening or changing!
To simply say it is caused by changes in the radiance hitting the earth, is at complete odds, with a sun currently experiencing a cooling phase.
We need to act with urgent alacrity, given the pace of measurable change, to protect ourselves, our children and their children; rather than, fossil fuel industries bottom lines!
Doing nothing to remediate human caused climate change is simply not an option, regardless of the evocations emanating from a few rouge scientists, or their grant providers?
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty and JohnBennetts

The problem has always been that there has never been any confirmation of the role of CO2 in the atmosphere. All we really know is that forecasts based on the action of CO2 have been unsuccessful. There is now a strong suspicion that its really the sun that drives climate.

But despite that lack of success the climate science industry has refused to modify its orthodoxy .. not give it up, just modify for the moment, to permit much research into the sun's influence on climate, so we can't say anything much more about the sun's influence on climate. At the moment scientists have to look at CO2 or no funds.

And people like Hansen are to blame in sticking rigidly to the CO2 othodoxy to the point of actively denouncing those who disagree with him, by comparing them with people who deny the holocaust. No wonder climate science is going no where.

As for the reference about powerful energy industry interest, Rhosty, that is simply absurd. There is no evidence that the obsession with renewables has effected the energy market at all, nor is there any reason it would. Therefore there is no reason why they should concern themselves with the greenhouse debate, and no indication that they have. If you look on an energy company site, all you will find is warmed-over green propoganda. They simply do not care about renewables, even to the point of failing to point out their obvious limitations..