Climategate: James Hansen Finds Complying with FOIA To Be Too Much of a Burden
A “tipping point” appears to be at hand for James Hansen, the longtime Al Gore adviser and godfather of the modern global warming movement.
Hansen now seems so disgusted with the conditions of his employment — on the taxpayer dime — that he no longer sees the conditions as acceptable.
As PJM readers know, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) got caught sexing up the post-2000 U.S. temperatures. I asked NASA for emails and other documents regarding their discussions about this. After more than two years, NASA coughed up some emails under the Freedom of Information Act, revealing internal discussions (and one particularly revealing external conversation) about losing data and other credibility issues. They also revealed discussion about NASA’s data being less reliable than — and indeed reliant upon — the non-existent Climategate temperature history from Britain’s Climate Research Unit (CRU).
These existed among other revelations (affirmations?), such as absurdly chummy relationships with establishment media and the ducking of questions from the less friendly reporters. (Additionally, there were some other discoveries which we will explore here at PJM and PJTV in coming weeks.)
Now, our FOIAs and those of others are apparently overwhelming Dr. Hansen’s media appearance and screed-writing time. He has taken to NASA’s website for yet another display of angst over his being one of the few honest visionaries fending off the dark forces working to subvert global salvation. Though this time, he doesn’t condemn those such as myself for crimes against humanity, a pleasant surprise.
Hansen writes:
Somehow we have to do a better job of communicating. The tricks being used by people supporting denial and business-as-usual are recognizably dirty, yet effective. We are continually burdened by sweeping FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, which reduce our ability to do science and write it up (perhaps this is their main objective), a waste of tax-payer money. Our analyses are freely available on the GISS web site as is the computer program used to carry out the analysis and the data sets that go into the program.
The material that we supplied to some recent FOIA requests was promptly posted on a website, and within minutes after that posting someone found that one of the e-mails included information about how to access Makiko Sato’s password-protected research directory on the GISS website (we had not noticed this due to the volume of material). Within 90 minutes, and before anyone else who saw this password information thought it worth reporting to GISS staff, most if not all of the material in Makiko’s directory was purloined by someone using automated “web harvesting” software and re-posted elsewhere on the web. The primary material consisted of numerous drafts of webpage graphics and article figures made in recent years.
It seems that a primary objective of the FOIA requestors and the “harvesters” is discussions that they can snip and quote out of context. On the long run, these distortions of the truth will not work and the public will realize that they have been bamboozled. Unfortunately, the delay in public understanding of the situation, in combination with the way the climate system works (inertia, tipping points) could be very detrimental for our children and grandchildren. The public will need to put more pressure on policymakers, enough to overcome the pressure from special financial interests, if the actions needed to stabilize climate are to be achieved.
As the FOIA emails show, Hansen, et al spend a significant amount of time spinning the press and massaging posts for the RealClimate website (which was established to defend the indefensible “Hockey Stick” and to attack author Michael Crichton), in addition to dealing with FOIA requests.
Only one of these activities is a required condition of Hansen’s employment. (PJM will be publishing some upcoming additional examples of GISS wasting taxpayer time and money.)
I’m curious what Hansen refers to with his statements regarding how to access Makiko Sato’s password-protected research directory.
Hansen says his team, followed by NASA’s FOIA team, inadvertently let some information slip that they didn’t want to be public. (And naturally, he does not blame his people for the error). I believe Hansen here — it probably wasn’t a conscious act to turn over the admission that NASA’s data set no longer exists for any legal or policy purpose.
However, given Hansen’s history and his use of the speculative “most if not all,” is this just another attempt by Hansen to equate those who disagree with or annoy him with the criminal and unethical?
How exactly was the described material accessed? Is Hansen’s claim regarding the event true, or a fabrication? He does have a history of moonbattery, including his insistence that presidents named George Bush have muzzled him — even as he gave countless interviews, and numerous FOIA emails pay homage to him as a media king.
Further, recall the spin, post-Climategate, was that the scientists caught subverting transparency statutes — among other transgressions — merely had to learn to “communicate better.” This spin continues here, as does the persistent claim that their messages are “out of context.” This was demonstrably untrue in the case of the “Climategate” emails — posted in their entirety within their relevant email thread — as it is with the GISS emails which we posted in full.
Analyses are available at GISS’s website, but admissions about the unreliability of those analyses were only available through FOIA, which seems to be what has Hansen’s attention.
My advice to Hansen: if this condition of your lucrative public employment is, in hindsight and amid all of the revelations, now no longer acceptable to you, you are the person best positioned to do something about that.
The modifier “gate” doesn’t seem to have much effect in the case of “climategate”. May I suggest a couple of new words, the used of which may expedite the process of getting criminals such as James Hansen into prison. Words like “climatecrime” and “warmingfraud” would be more effective in my opinion.
How about “Eco-Enron”?
Environmentalists are invariably people that want others to use less energy!
If Obama/Gore really believed global warming, they would talk non stop about lowering speed limits to 50 and demand that Americans stop jack rabbit starts and stop racing to lights that are red.
Virtually no Americans believe it either; just look at the fuel wasting driving habits; that also fund the other sides war against us! If you believe the hurricane may kill you/your family: you leave. The driving habits prove no one believes it.
The congress/press are selling a scam, for profit, not seen since the middle ages; The cap and trade scam is a variation of the “indulgences scam” used, among other things, to man the crusades/get bad people to go somewhere else!
Post the data showing the randomly selected locations where temperature and snow pack are documented for 1 million years and that will tell the tale. Select locations that meet your agenda: liars figure but figures do not lie!
Earth wobbles, sun spots, ocean currents/temperature, volcanoes, solar storms/winds et al;
Environmentalists are invariably: “people that want others to use less energy”. c Getty 2002. Cap and trade is a scam just like a ponzi scheme is a scam. The last variation of the cap and trade scam I can site occurred in the middle ages when indulgences were sold as a stairway to heaven for the G-dless/bad people.
God Bless the Freedom of Information Act
As I read Hansen’s little screed, I am totally amazed that anyone listens to him. He doesn’t write like the scientist he claims to be. He writes like a raving lunatic who thinks everyone is wrong and only his brand of lunacy can save the world. Only a madman could say the following: “Unfortunately, the delay in public understanding of the situation, in combination with the way the climate system works (inertia, tipping points) could be very detrimental for our children and grandchildren. The public will need to put more pressure on policymakers, enough to overcome the pressure from special financial interests, <>.” I have set off the particular quote that caught my eye. Hansen must believe that humans have the power to affect the climate in a serious way, and that he has the elixir they need to have the ability to do so. Clearly, he is mad.
Methinks the fraud doth protesteth too much.
I always liked, “Warmmongerers”
It is about time that frauds like James Hansen and Michael Mann are held accountable for their respective deceptions on Climate Change. I thank Pajamamedia for all of your good work to help expose these dishonest folks and other who wish to gain financially(ALGORE) from this.
Jack:
His E-mails read just like some of the screeds that T. D. Lysenko wrote in defense of his pseudo-science. If I believed in re-incarnation I would think he is Lysenko reborn.
The entire concept of a positive feedback loop is anathema to complex systems. Complex systems tend toward stability, and will act to resist any change to the equilibrium. Positive feedback loops, by contrast, are unstable against small perturbations- slight changes can cascade to the point where they destroy the system (think Chernobyl- loss of coolant to the reactor caused power output to increase, causing more coolant to boil off, further increasing the power until the system overloaded and the coolant pipes exploded).
Christopher Horner writes;
It must be a collective public hallucination then that NASA’s data, code and documentation are publicly available, enabling independent replication of their temperature product. If you look at the input data you will not find HadCRUT among the sources, contrary to claims;
Despite being non-existent, HadCRUT can be found here.
Before anyone gripes that the source data for HadCRUT are unavailable, that is no longer true for 3,000 station series, and the difference between this subset and the full dataset is small.
But, then, what standards of ‘journalism’ can one expect from someone who ‘works’ for the CEI, which has received more than $2 million in grants from ExxonMobil since 1998, $350,000 in 2006 from the Scaife Foundation, as well as funding from the American Petroleum Institute, Texaco, Amoco, General Motors and Ford.
Lazar:
You conveniently forget that Hansen is on George Soros’ payroll.
You keep claiming that the HadCRUT data is publicly available. That is a false statement. Only the processed data is available on a public website. The underlying data has been destroyed or lost. Phil Jones admited that in the recent Parliamentary inquirey. You cannot reconstruct the CRU data from its original source and is therefore garbage.
You seem to continue to ignore the statements made by the CRU and other about the GISS data set. They say that most of the temperature data comes from HadCRUT and that it is inferior to the CRU dataset.
Why is it that you
Oh Lazar, Lazar… you need to learn the difference between raw data and massaged data.
Comparing the difference between CRUTEM3 and the Hansen subset is laughably ignorant as Hansen stated that he uses CRUTEM and HADCRUT to check his data smoothing routines. Of course they would look the same!
On money issues, given that the Heinz foundation paid Hansen $250,000 to endorse Kerry for president, and Soros paid Hansen $720,000 to stump for Climate Catastrophe Inc. .. on top of Hansen’s lucrative salary at GISS.. I wouldn’t be throwing those stones if I were you. Also since he is the supposed brain feeding Al Gore his facts.. who I’m sure pays Hansen NO money for the service, and who has nothing to gain from Hansen’s support…
Left this out on the cut and paste:
Why is it that you continue to post what has been proven to be false. Is it because you too are on the Soros payroll
#11: Who’s hallucinating? Lazar attempts to prove that those who swallow Gore’s spittle also can’t read. Try putting in the entire quote. Of course, like Hanson and the CRU, you swallowers like to play fast and loose with “the truth”, don’t you?
“I believe Hansen here — it probably wasn’t a conscious act to turn over the admission that NASA’s data set no longer exists for any legal or policy purpose.”
Lazar writes:
“…and the difference between this subset and the full dataset is small.”
Your forgot to type “IMHO.” As the clause above shows, what you have posted is entirely IN YOUR HUMBLE OPINION. So, why do you bluster so when all you post is your opinion?
But, then, what standards of ‘journalism’ can one expect from someone who ‘works’ for the CEI, which has received more than $2 million in grants from ExxonMobil since 1998, $350,000 in 2006 from the Scaife Foundation, as well as funding from the American Petroleum Institute, Texaco, Amoco, General Motors and Ford.
Here comes the guilt by association. Tell me, how much funding have the “climate scientists” received from organizations and corporations with a vested interest in proving AGW is real?
Despite being non-existent, HadCRUT can be found here.
Lazar, you keep saying that; the problem continues to be that this is the homogenized data, and there appears to be no way to recreate or audit the homogenization.
Then you say:
the difference between this subset and the full dataset is small.
… but multiple examinations of raw data versus the dataset for areas where both are available show that the small difference — in particular selection of included data points versus the whole data set — account for all or nearly all the warming signal.
When what we’re talking about is the difference between around 304 kelvins and 305 kelvins, a small difference can make a big difference.
As far as CEI’s funding sources, you might want to be careful with that, since CRU receives major funding from “Big Oil” as well.
This thread is a pretty good example of the Progressive playbook: fraud, disinformation, lots of “useful idiots” in play, keep the focus on the appealing utopian concept that require the rest of us to give them control, target and vilify “big something” and suggest that “deniers” are in cahoots with them.
They tackled the tough one first. The march to Obamacare will make their drive to Cap and Trade seem like a cake walk.
Freedom and limited Government is the only way. Our founders knew this but we have forgotten.
James Hansen is the main reason even Florida residents don’t give a damn if the space program is strangled.
Charlie @ #18: Spot-on!!
“Somehow we have to do a better job of communicating.” Is he trying to see that they need a “Secret” no traceable, non-FOIA mechanism to collaborate with each other?
He sure can’t be talking about “Communicating the mass hysteria and global Armageddon from CO2.” They are brainwashing our children and continue to. Have you watched ANY, and I mean any, show on ANY of the Discovery channels? The last five minutes is how all of the animals they just talked about are going to die because of global warming, or how these islands are going to disappear because of global warming, or how the polar ice cap has been PROVEN to be DECREASING at an alarming rate and will not be here for your children, and etc. and, etc. Some of the shows are completely, totally filled with the same mass hysteria as reported in the IPCC report and proven wrong AND admitted as incorrect by the authors. It has reached the point I can no longer watch them. How can anyone let their children watch this propaganda? How can we let the schools show this to our students? National Geographic, Discovery, BBC, and many other “quality” film makers are now and have been part of the propaganda machine.
THIS MUST STOP
Where is all of the data on heating degree days and cooling degree days?
Several years ago I was trying to decide if I wanted a heat pump and looked at the NWS “Heating Degree Day” data on the internet. I noted that it was a text file that went back to the 40′s and was a pain to use. But I could load it into Access and get the data I wanted. The data for my city went back to early 1900!
Remembering how far it went back, I thought this data would tell me what is happening to the temperature here in the USA, so I looked for it again. I figured that higher heating degree day numbers means colder and lower means warmer. Now all I can find is an interactive search engine that only gives a “Normal” based upon the average from 1970 to 2000. I found a few cities that go back further but none that go before 1970. It is also difficult to go back more than a few years, and many cities just have a total (annual, not monthly or daily) number. There is no data that goes back to 1940 anymore.
Where did it go? Are they hiding it? Doesn’t it agree with their “adjusted data? What gives?
I heard in a radio interview that after the sceptics submit a fioa request, the submit another fioa request to cover the discussion about how to respond to the initial fioa request.
Transparency is taking all the fun out of being a warmer–heck, even clinton mocked gore the other day.
“Somehow we have to do a better job of communicating.”
Gee, that’s the argument Barry keeps making.
“Unfortunately, the delay in public understanding of the situation, in combination with the way the climate system works (inertia, tipping points) could be very detrimental for our children and grandchildren.”
Didn’t Hansen once acknowledge, “yeah, we’re exaggerating, but it’s for the good of mankind” (aka the stupid people) ?
Didn’t Hansen’s boss at NASA say he was something of an ass ?
Precisely at the time, the IPCC crap refaisaient surface: in India (New Delhi) (1!) island is submerged by water due to false ‘warming’!
Water rises 5 mm per year, and in 10 years = 5 cm. Floods in 5 cm! The island lies in the Gulf of Bengal, up-welling area.
As there are also bayous in Louisiana are formed and deform following currents.
Therefore, only 1.600.000 years the Hymalaya will be under water !
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100324/ap_on_sc/as_india_disappearing_island
“Environmentalists are invariably people that want others to use less energy!
If Obama/Gore really believed global warming, they would talk non stop about lowering speed limits to 50 and demand that Americans stop jack rabbit starts and stop racing to lights that are red.”
Not to mention that if you really believe it you sure as hell wouldn’t dry your clothes by burning fossil fuels. But try and suggest to the enviros around here (North Central Florida) that the sun does a pretty good job on line hung clothes (even in the winter) and they’ll suddenly change the subject. I’ve even identified the exact mountain top removal mine that our coal comes from (thanks to the leftys at ILOVEMOUNTAINS.COM) and most still won’t budge.
“On the long run, these distortions of the truth will not work and the public will realize that they have been bamboozled.” The truth is, in the long run, those distortions of the truth did not work and the public have realized they have been bamboozled…by the global warming hucksters.
7. JustAl:
I always liked, “Warmmongerers”
Oooh I like that one.
“James Hansen Finds Complying with FOIA To Be Too Much of a Burden”
That’s exactly how I feel about paying this fanatic’s salary.
“They also revealed discussion about NASA’s data being less reliable than — and indeed reliant upon — the non-existent Climategate temperature history from Britain’s Climate Research Unit (CRU).”
Chris,
It’s going to be interesting to watch the EPA dance around this.
It’s amazing he doesn’t learn. He’s “friends”(or at least ‘colleagues’) with Phil Jones. They’re on the same side, and are both whack jobs at high levels in the “official government science community”. Not complying with FOIA in the UK didn’t do PJ any good either. (did get him so depressed he thought about killing himself – thought that might have been more bull trying to get people to feel sorry for him. Not. ).
Earth Hour is coming up this Saturday, 8:30pm.
Celebrate with your friends by turning ON all the lights in your house
(incandescent bulbs preferred), firing up the charcoal grill,
having a bonfire, and just generally being of good cheer.
Hanson is seeing his millions float away on the growing ice flows. Too bad. I hope in the end someone goes to jail or gets sued.
Hansen will never quit NASA. NASA gives him an air of legitimacy. If he leaves he has to join up with some quack eco group thereby reducing his power. I think a university will have a hard time with a person of his baggage, even CRU, due to what has happened since climategate. Maybe he can take over the IPCC and kill that organization, not a bad idea.
Who has the balls to to make a movie out of “State of Fear”? If this makes it to the theaters the wooden stake could be driven 5 more inches into the eco freak heart.
This environmental movement is heading for a train wreck. People are tired of being told what to do.
I prefer the term warmmonger for those who propose AGW.
Publicizing his data is too much of a burden? This seems to be a fairly common theme. If their data is defensible and reproducible, why are they working so hard to keep it secret? These are common sense questions I ask myself. As a scientist, any data I’ve populated I would gladly make public. It’s not a crime to commit errors, that happens daily. It is a crime to hide the errors or even worse, manipulate data for monetary gain.
Warmers have,for decades, been telling us to abide by their religion so as to save our children and grand children from the effects of global warming. Decades have passed, my children have become parents and have children, therefore being my grandchildren, BUT still I cannot see the enemy arriving anywhere soon. I cannot see people dying of global warming, but thousands of human beings have died, directly or indirectly, while thousands of farm and wild animals have frozen to death across the globe due to freezing conditions. I am investing in fur coats and snow-shoes for my grandchildren.
Poor Lazar’s pathetic attempt fell flat and wont be posting here again after that beat down.
Jim Hansen was in Australia recently, promoting his book of course, but also advising Australians to go NUCLEAR, stop eating meat and exporting our coal.
Well actually Dr Hansen, nuclear wouldn’t be good for Australia.
Remember 2003 in August in Paris, the temps rose to 40C (not unusual for Australia in some areas) not only did Parisians drop like flies, but the nuclear reactors were under heat stress also.
They require 200,000,000 (200 million) liters a day to cool them. Where the hell is Australia to find these water resources. In France, nuclear reactors were about to shut down because their walls reached 48 C and their safety margin is 50 C. They nearly pulled the plug. In Australia, 40 C isn’t unusual, and we haven’t the water resources to sustain the cooling for a reactor.
James Hansen like Al Gore, Michael Mann, Phil Jones, Stephen Schneider (the 1970s An Ice commeth alarmist) Dr Pachauri (who has conflict of interests) should be brought to account for their obviously corrupted data to enhance the investments in Carbon trading and clean energy investments.
CO2 does not contribute to climate change. AGW is a big scam.
And people are now worried. Sustainability and climate change are a worry that we have to adapt to, but … not via Hansens way. The planet probably is heading into another ice age and we have to be more environmentally conservative and think sustainability. But electricity is what we need as the live blood
of this planet. Nuclear is not the way to go!
40. Then don’t build light water reactors. LWRs are like 50′s automobiles; they’re easy to produce, but their fuel economy sucks. The Auzies should build helium cooled reactors, which not only achieve much higher burnups and thermal efficiency, but also have the advantage of being walk-away safe- if you lose coolant, the pressure in the cooling system drops, preventing any risk of a pressure explosion; meanwhile, the core retains structural integrity up to 1600 C, while it operates around 1000 C. This safety margin is high enough that thermal feedback will shut the reactor down in case of an accident, with no risk of residual heat sources taking it over the safety limit.
We continue to hear all about “tipping point” theory, but nothing about the more plausible corrective feedback theory. If the earth’s climate were unstable and vulnerable to “tipping points,” it would have tipped long before now. Enormous volcano eruptions, meteor hits, all have happened numerous times and yet the climate corrects. Throughout geologic history, what’s the “correct” CO2 level anyway?? Right now we are apparently bumping along the bottom of it’s range.. plants grow better when in enriched atmospheres. This indicates that they evolved in richer concentrations, doesn’t it? Also, I’ve lived in the same area of the USA for sixty years. I see no climate change. It still gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer, just like always. No new records either way are being made. My conclusion: They’re making it all up!