Blog #10

          In the 60 Minutes piece, “Re-Writing the Science” James Hansen has spoken up and spoken out.  James Hansen was the leading researcher on global warming as the head of NASA’s top Institution for 30 years.  He states that the White House does not want us to know the seriousness of the climate changes.  Hansen’s research finds that within 10 years if the people don’t do something to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, global warming will begin to rise above 1 degree Celsius and become unstoppable.  The fact that a leading researcher has spoken this and then states the White House is changing documentation as to the real facts is a scary prospect. 

During the Bush administration it was found that President Bush pulled out of the global treaty with revealing a lot of misleading information despite all the findings from James Hansen.   Hansen became disturbed and spoke out at a talk with the University of Iowa.  This resulted in NASA restricting his interviews. 

The climate reports, including “Our Changing Climate”, that were co-written with Rick Piltz, have been turned in to the White House Administration and have been edited to sound less threatening.  A large amount of changes have been written in by the Chief of Staff.  The edits he made were made into the final copy.  It is felt there is a political agenda for this to be happening.   Piltz felt that anyone who disagreed did not have a place and soon left his position. 

The White House is spending billions of dollars in researching climate controls but Hansen feels that research is great, but action is much more important. 

If the White House is aware of the research findings from respected researchers it is a wonder why more has not been done?  Why are the facts, that are written in black and white being edited to be less of an issue?  What does this mean for the future of climate control if the White House Administration is not being forthcoming with the issues presented for our world?