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US climate expert says NASA bids to muzzle him
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-29 13:44 IOWA SPEECH
Since 1988 he has warned publicly about the long-term threat from
heat-trapping emissions, dominated by carbon dioxide, that are a byproduct of
burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels, The Times said.
It said he fell out of favor with the White House in 2004 after a University
of Iowa speech ahead of the presidential election in which he complained that
government climate scientists were being muzzled, adding that he planned to vote
for Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry.
Hansen told the Times over the course of several interviews that an effort
began in early December to keep him from publicly discussing what he says are
clear-cut dangers from further delay in curbing carbon dioxide.
Hansen said the recent efforts to quiet him began after a lecture he gave on
December 6 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San
Francisco in which he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with
existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles.
Without leadership by the United States, he told The Times, climate change
would eventually leave the earth "a different planet."
Hansen said that NASA headquarters officials repeatedly phoned public affairs
officers, who warned Hansen of "dire consequences" if such statements continued.
The officers confirmed the warning to the Times.
The Bush administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but
not reverse, the growth of emissions, the paper said.
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