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May 31, 2007

Oy! I Heard This Interview on the Car Radio This Morning

...and the LOOOONNGGG pause before he answered the question. My first thought was, "Holy scha-MOLY! Is he gonna catch it!"

NASA administrator Michael Griffin is drawing the ire of his agency's preeminent climate scientists after apparently downplaying the need to combat global warming.

In an interview broadcast this morning on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program, Griffin was asked by NPR's Steve Inskeep whether he is concerned about global warming.

"I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."


Sure didn't take long.
...Griffin's comments immediately drew stunned reaction from James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

"It's an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement," Hansen told ABC News. "It indicates a complete ignorance of understanding the implications of climate change."


I love how when you disagree with these a$$holes, you're 'incredibly arrogant and STOO-PID'. Whatever happened to "I'd have to strongly disagree with my esteemed colleague's opinion..."

I think we have Cindy Sheehan to thank for this total lack of civility in a discipline that ~ prior to shrinking polar bear gonads ~ had always been pretty circumspect in public.

Posted by tree hugging sister at May 31, 2007 01:34 PM

Comments

Actually, this goes back a lot further than that.

When I was working at Apple back between 95 and 97, I was reading on the internet about how Al Gore was intimidating scientists to adopt his global warming theories or else. It got little attention back then and largely thought to be the opinion of conspiracy mongers, but it would seem that current events prove it true.

Posted by: Mike Rentner at May 31, 2007 03:07 PM

I don't think it's possible anymore to simply disagree with the more hardcore man-made GW crowd. Allowing that reasonable people can disagree might confer some sort of legitimacy to the challenge and therefore it must be met not with argument, but with attacks and demonization. "Denier", "shill for big oil", the constant marketing of "consensus", are all just modern versions of making a sign and yelling heretic. They are employed not for engaging in debate, but to avoid it.

Posted by: Dave E. at May 31, 2007 03:32 PM

"Consensus" has been shanghaied by the envirotards in much the same way that "liberal" and "feminist" were stolen by the leftards.

Mike, that Goreacle story surprises me not at all. We went through his "reinvention of government" around the same time, and it was a case of "I don't care stupid it sounds, do it!"

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at May 31, 2007 04:59 PM

"I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

Hmm. I can see where someone on the other side might consider that an "ignorant" statement. But for the life of me, I can't locate the "arrogant".

But then, Hansen seems to be pretty much a dickhead.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at May 31, 2007 09:49 PM

Oh, and linky linky - though I wish MT would get with it, already.

Posted by: Nightfly at June 1, 2007 10:12 PM

Dammit, can't I even manual trackback? I must have forgotten a tag. Trying again.

Posted by: Nightfly at June 1, 2007 10:13 PM