Dr. James E. Hansen, NASA's top climate expert and director of the space agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies,
told the NYT that the Bush Administration is trying to muzzle him because he advocates "prompt" reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr. Hansen, a physicist who joined NASA in 1967, has been at odds with the administration for several years over issues of greenhouse gases and global warming. But he said the administration clamped down after he spoke to the American Geophysical Union last December.
In the talk, he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles, and that without leadership by the United States, climate change would eventually leave the earth "a different planet." The administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but not reverse, the growth of emissions.
After that speech and the release of data by Dr. Hansen on Dec. 15 showing that 2005 was probably the warmest year in at least a century, officials at the headquarters of the space agency repeatedly phoned public affairs officers, who relayed the warning to Dr. Hansen that there would be "dire consequences" if such statements continued, those
officers and Dr. Hansen said in interviews.
Among the restrictions, according to Dr. Hansen and an internal draft memorandum he provided to The Times, was that his supervisors could stand in for him in any news media interviews.
Dr. Hansen said he planned to ignore the restrictions.
Thank you, Dr. Hansen, for your willingness to take a stand and take the heat. You are a hero. Please take care - and watch your back.