NASA Scientist wants Big Oil Sued

Oh dear, from the Guardian UK. James Hansen wants Big Oil sued. NASA Scientist wants oil firm chiefs sued.

James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

This is all part of the launch of www.350.org, the website dedicated to reducing CO2 levels to 350 ppm.

Where did this 350 number come from?

Dr. James Hansen, of NASA, the United States’ space agency, has been researching global warming longer than just about anyone else. He was the first to publicly testify before the U.S. Congress, in June of 1988, that global warming was real. He and his colleagues have used both real-world observation, computer simulation, and mountains of data about ancient climates to calculate what constitutes dangerous quantities of carbon in the atmosphere. The Bush Administration has tried to keep Hansen and his team from speaking publicly, but their analysis has been widely praised by other scientists, and by experts like Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. The full text of James Hansen’s paper about 350 can be found here.

British polling shows people lack trust in climate change scientists

A public poll in the UK has found that Britons do not entirely believe the climate change scientists whose research is propelling the government on urgent socioeconomic and political upheaval.

The results have shocked campaigners who hoped that doubts would have been silenced by a report last year by more than 2,500 scientists for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which found a 90 per cent chance that humans were the main cause of climate change and warned that drastic action was needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Now consider the NOAA Climate Extremes report that was released late last week. Was this the motivation of that report as well — to overwhelm all doubt and make drastic action a fait accompli?

There is growing concern that an economic depression and rising fuel and food prices are denting public interest in environmental issues. Some environmentalists blame the public’s doubts on last year’s Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, and on recent books, including one by Lord Lawson, the former Chancellor, that question the consensus on climate change.

Here in the US, 4$ a gallon gasoline has even caused Lindsay Graham’nesty and John McCain and even the venerable Q-Tip Charlie Crist to suggest opening offshore drilling. Apparently the British do not like the price of gas especially with their government’s confiscatory and punitive energy taxes.

Ipsos MORI polled 1,039 adults and found that six out of 10 agreed that ‘many scientific experts still question if humans are contributing to climate change’, and that four out of 10 ’sometimes think climate change might not be as bad as people say’. In both cases, another 20 per cent were not convinced either way. Despite this, three quarters still professed to be concerned about climate change.

60% think there is still a debate! Al Gore says otherwise, and puts his electricity usage up as evidence. Oops.

Two thirds want the government to do more but nearly as many said they were cynical about government policies such as green taxes, which they see as ’stealth’ taxes.

Green jobs = Unemployment
Green taxes = clean and environmentally friendly socialism without the guilt

The proponents of AGW know that the public is skeptical and will have to redouble their efforts to scare the crap out of people. The media is complicit and will have to ramp up their coverage of floods, tornadoes, rain, clouds, wind, sunrises, etc.