Putting Some Heat on Bush
Scientist Inspires Anger, Awe for Challenges on Global WarmingBy Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 19, 2005; Page A17In his worn navy windbreaker, 63-year-old climatologist James E. Hansen looks more like the Iowa farm native that he is than a rebel -- but he's both.
Hansen, a lifelong government employee who heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, has inspired both anger and awe in the nation's scientific and political communities since publicly denouncing the Bush administration's policy on climate change last year.
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The ongoing sparring match between Hansen and his superiors underscores a broader tension between President Bush's top policy advisers and many senior U.S. scientists, who have loudly blasted the administration's approach to environmental questions in recent months. Nearly 50 Nobel laureates endorsed Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) for president; this year the Union of Concerned Scientists has collected more than 6,000 scientists' signatures on a letter questioning how the president applies research to policymaking.
After the barrage of criticism, John H. Marburger III, Bush's top science adviser, told Science magazine that if the researchers continue their protests, they might alienate influential lawmakers who set federal science budgets.
I love that oh-so thinly-veiled threat there! No such thing as subtlty in this administration, by God!http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19162-2005Jan18.html