NASA's trouble in the hen house, top scientist slams administrator

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onMay 31, 2007 @ 11:46 PDT

The big story today, which we wrote about last night was some outrageous statements made by White House appointed NASA administrator, Michaelย Griffin.

Today, Jim Hansen, a top NASA scientist is coming back at Griffin hard in an exclusive interview with ABC News. Hansenย states:

โ€œIt’s an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement,โ€ Hansen told ABC News. โ€œIt indicates a complete ignorance of understanding the implications of climate change.โ€

Here’s a portion of the ABC transcript: ย 

Hansen believes Griffin’s comments fly in the face of well-established scientific knowledge that hundreds of NASA scientists have contributed to.

โ€œIt’s unbelievable,โ€ said Hansen. โ€œI thought he had been misquoted. It’s so unbelievable.โ€
News media inquiries to NASA headquarters about Griffin’s comments prompted the space agency to make the unusual move of issuing a news release late Wednesday night.

โ€œNASA is the world’s preeminent organization in the study of Earth and the conditions that contribute to climate change and global warming,โ€ Griffin said in a statement. โ€œThe agency is responsible for collecting data that is used by the science community and policy makers as part of an ongoing discussion regarding our planet’s evolving systems. It is NASA‘s responsibility to collect, analyze and release information. It is not NASA‘s mission to make policy regarding possible climate change mitigation strategies. As I stated in the NPR interview, we are proud of our role and I believe we do it well.โ€

Hansen, featured prominently in Al Gore’s global warming documentary, โ€œAn Inconvenient Truth,โ€ has been warning of the potential dangers of climate change since the 1980s.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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