Don't you love yanks telling us what to do while not doing the same themselves.

Kenny,
maybe your take on Hansen's message is that it is just from a Yahoo Yank; but with his origins (and for similar tone) it could also be categorised as being from a Dirty Dane, or Snivelling Scandinavian. It is pretty much irrelevant where he lives as to the fundamental message of the letter.
But, I wonder what your attitude is to those fellow travellers of his, mentioned in his letter:
Professor Barry Brook, Professor of climate change, University of Adelaide
Dr Andrew Glikson, Australian National University
Professor Janette Lindesay, Australian National University
Dr Graeme Pearman, Monash University
Dr Barrie Pittock, CSIRO
Dr Michael Raupach, CSIRO

The “world’s poor” mentioned by this person will be the ones who suffer most if the mania for stopping CO2 emissions is allowed to take effect.

The only thing of note for us about James Hansen’s’ list of qualifications is that he is a foreigner sticking his nose into Australia’s affairs. His “urgency of the matter” puts him firmly in the category off all other climate change alarmists; his “we will assuredly destroy much of the fabric of life on the planet” (by emitting CO2) puts him firmly in the neo flat earth society.

Hansen’s , and others, objections to the use of coal are just more of the same old same old from people of his ilk.

Coal is a cheap and readily available advantage we have in Australia. We should continue using it – more of if necessary – cleaning it up if possible. Climate change will take care of itself. All we can do is adapt to the changes

Sorry Jimmy. Your George Soros funded global anti-economic crusade is crumbling, and only has a year or two left before it is seen for the giant fraud that it is.

That a member of a tax payer funded institution such as NASA would for so many years refuse to release data necessary to replicate your results show that you are not a scientist, but a propagandist.

Perhaps you should tell us all how China will be forced to shut down all it's coal plants (which it is constructing at an incredible pace) which will cause China's emissions to increase at such a rate as to dwarf any possible savings from Australian efforts? Do you advocate military action or do you have some as yet undiscovered diplomatic secret to forcing sovereign nations to change their ways (Perhaps you could use this incredible diplomatic technique to stop the murder of innocents that China is currently involved in as a demonstration of your amazing abilities so we know our climate change activities will not be in vain).

Finally, why do you advocate measures that would (and already are) causing millions of poor people to increase their poverty and suffering and why do you advocate destroying the Australian economy to reduce worldwide temperatures by 0.000043 degrees per year (if we ignore China)?

So much for bluster, bias and ignorance. There's no excuse for ignorance. This is the age of the Internet.

Here is Jim Hansen in his own words (21 March, audio, video and transcript):

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/21/censoring_science_inside_the_political_attack

Note: he is a scientist, not a spin doctor, nor a politician, nor yet a captain of industry. Just a man of pure science.

- for god's sake do your homework -

"If Australia halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is still time to find that tipping point, but just barely. I hope that you will give these considerations your attention in setting your national policies. You have the potential to influence the future of the planet."

A tipping point? Where on earth is the evidence for this statement? It's just bizarre. He undermines his argument with something that is clearly only conjecture.

Scientists should stick to science and present us with the facts. Veering into the realm of politics is not good for their credibility.