Warning: Crimes Against Humanity May Be Found Here
According not to some random weird dude found on a campus in California, but to the head of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, I am guilty of crimes against humanity for questioning whether the world's climate system is really dominated by strong positive feedback
One of the world’s most widely respected climatologists, James Hansen, director of NASA-GISS, which focuses on the study of earth’s climate for the space agency, testified to Congress in 2008 that the CEOs of fossil fuel companies (who, according to various professional reporting have been promoting this and other misleading messages about global warming in conjunction with ideological groups trying to prevent government regulation) “knew what they were doing” and, as stated in his written testimony to Congress in 2008, were guilty of “high crimes against humanity and nature.”
Hansen tells ABC News — in a phone call from the U.K. where he’s been traveling — that he used that highly charged phrase, crime against humanity, “not only for dramatic effect, but also because it is accurate, given the enormous scale of the consequences to humanity” if manmade global warming is not somehow stopped and reversed.
“It wasn’t only aimed at the fossil fuel CEOs,” Hansen added on the phone. “This also applies to politicians who pretend the global warming is not manmade.”....
“Crimes Against Humanity” is a category of culpability that found currency in the last century as a label for such atrocities as genocide, including the Nazi Holocaust.
This is a grave accusation, laden with great emotion, but it has not been made lightly — rather with extensive study and forethought.
You have been warned.
me:
I knew it! You monster.
I really don't get it. How could you? After all, science has always been about the unquestioning belief of authority and the respect for your elders and betters. Asking questions, and, even worse, backing them up with data as you so often do?!
The Hague is too good for you. Just wait, someone is going to write a strongly-worded peer review of your blog.
April 18, 2012, 8:21 pmWithout even quoting you properly.
TJIC:
> Hansen tells ABC News — in a phone call from the U.K. where he’s been traveling
I wonder what was so important in the UK that could REMOTELY justify him actually travelling there via passenger jet, when less-carbon intensive methods of collaborating across distances are possible.
On the other hand, we do know that there are some very large potential downsides to collaborating via email.
April 18, 2012, 8:46 pmGil:
Do tell: is S.K.I. (Spending Kids Inheritance) unjust? Baby Boomers intend to dissipate their wealth instead bequeathing it even though great wealth is usually accomplished over generations. Hence is there a moral duty for Baby Boomers not to engage in S.K.I. or is it their wealth to do whatever with they want? If it's the latter then who cares whether our actions today might imperil the people of a century hence? Thanks to people today they might live in a futuristic wonderland or a hellish nightmare but that's their problem.
April 19, 2012, 3:13 amMNHawk:
What about the people who fly all over the world, personally contributing to doom?
April 19, 2012, 3:47 amHunt Johnsen:
The Dalai Lama was in town yesterday and a friend said he was pushing the climate change/global warming BS. Is nothing sacred?
April 19, 2012, 7:40 amWalt:
Better think about buying more ammunition.
April 19, 2012, 8:31 amJoshK:
What's really sad is that people like this ally themselves with those who have commited true crimes against humanity as they dilute the value of both the expression. If being a climate denier is similar to being a holocaust denier and then running your car and burning fossil fuels is equivalent to being a Nazi, then how bad can Nazi's be?
People who try to use real tradgedies like the Holocaust for their political causes are truly evil.
April 19, 2012, 9:11 amSam L.:
Well, I, personally, just disrespect the Hell out of Hansen. He's earned it, and I'm giving the full measure.
April 20, 2012, 8:41 amJoseph Hertzlinger:
If we take him seriously...
When are we hanging anti-nuclear activists?
April 20, 2012, 10:24 amTed Rado:
The Germans, Spaniards, et al are backing off of their wind and solar subsidies. They are beginning to realize what they have got themselves into re costs and problems. In twenty years, Hansen and "alternative energy" will be just bad memories of man's folly. Around the globe, we have spent a trillion dollars or more on nonsense.
April 20, 2012, 4:53 pm