James Hansen Suddenly Remembers His Disclaimer - Hilarious!

[hatrack]

ALBANY -- In the midst of a gripping presentation at Albany Law School about the implications of a rapidly warming planet, James Hansen, NASA's chief climate change scientist stopped, and muttered "Oh." "Everything that I'm saying today is my personal opinion," said Hansen, who created a major stir in December when he revealed that White House officials were trying to keep him from talking frankly about global warming. "If there are policy implications to what I say," Hansen continued, as many of the nearly 200 people in the audience laughed, "I'll let those speak for themselves."

Hansen was greeted as a folk hero Tuesday as he kicked off the symposium on "Catastrophic Climate Change" for researchers, law professors and others discussing ways to address global warming. More than a dozen panelists talked about the impact of climate change and legal strategies to address them. But the star of the show was Hansen, 63, a physicist who directs the Manhattan-based NASA Institute for Space Studies, which specializes in climate modeling. The institute runs complex computer programs that predict what will happen as increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, warm the atmosphere.

After Hansen gave a speech in December about the dire need for more efficient fuel standards for cars and trucks, NASA's public affairs staff warned him he needed to submit all his speeches and papers for review. Other researchers from agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey reported they, too, had been warned to be careful how they wrote and spoke about climate change.

One USGS hydrologist even told The Washington Post that a press release about a study he did on how warming might affect the nation's water supply was edited to remove the phrases "global warming" and "climate change."

EDIT

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=473022&category=REGION&newsdate=4/19/2006

[northzax]

1. I have a professor who works at the Fish and Wildlife service

he prephases just about every sentence with "This is MY opinion, as a private citizen, and not neccesarily the opinion of the Service" it gets old, but we understand why he has to say it.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. How sad that they are forced to do this.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Poor bastard...

worth a laugh, though.