Aug 10 2007
Global Warming Fanatic Hansen Is Not “NASA”, And The Earth Ain’t Flat
I get really tired of people confusing one media hungry nut with an entire organization. Just as Senator Reid is not “The Senate”, Hansen the Global Warming media darling from a marginal offshoot office of NASA is not “NASA”. Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, MD employs tens of thousands of civil servant and contractor experts in space science and engineering. It is the NASA center for Earth Observing Missions – what used to be called Mission To Planet Earth. I have worked on some of these missions and know people who have lead roles in measuring the features of our home planet.
The Goddard Institute of Space Studies, where Hansen works, is in NY City and is a small office of about 50-100 people who I have never once seen in all my years working for NASA as a contractor. I have no clue what they do, but they are not “NASA”. In fact, their name implies they are not even part of the Earth Observing campaign. The term “Space Studies” is used in NASA to identify missions and efforts pointed away from Earth. At best Hansen speaks for himself, possibly a team he leads.
This is a media myth that needs busting, especially since this guy has now had to admit his data is FUBAR; and the conclusions he has been screaming into media microphones is also, therefore, FUBAR. Or in SW engineering terms: garbage in you get garbage out.
All of sudden Hansen (who I bet even calls himself “NASA” even when mumbling to himself at home alone) has fixed his little old Excel Spreadsheet and now we find the entire historic record of global temperatures is reversed from the media hype:
NASA [AJStrata a.k.a. Hansen] has now silently released corrected figures, and the changes are truly astounding. The warmest year on record is now 1934. 1998 (long trumpeted by the media as record-breaking) moves to second place. 1921 takes third. In fact, 5 of the 10 warmest years on record now all occur before World War II. Anthony Watts has put the new data in chart form, along with a more detailed summary of the events.
So, we are not as hot now as we were before WW II. Got that Al Gore? This is NOT the hottest period within even the last 100 years. It is coming up close to tying the warmest period from so many years ago. Given the increase in population, industry, use of the automobile and fossil fuels, etc, one might think we would see an increase from WW II to now. We don’t yet. We might yet surpass that warm period WW II – then again we might not. But we are not superheating at this point. Not yet.
I have a science and engineering background and those of us in these businesses live or die on accuracy in our conclusions. Hansen’s mistake with his data was a bush league mistake. I expect more care from a High School graduate. Hansen is not “NASA”, no matter how many times he calls himself that. The Earth’s current temperature is not out of line with recent modern history under conditions with much less industry, fossil fuel use, and human beings. And the Earth is not flat. Pay attention Gore.
Addendum: I should not that the place Hansen works is actually part of Columbia University in NY – he may actually be just another NASA contractor. Also, Michelle has a pretty good round up on this news.
Update: It has been noted that GISS is an arm of GSFC and does do work on Earth Observing science. With that said – Hansen is one person who put out errored data to the general public as fact. I don’t think his being an employee of NASA has made his irresponsible mistake any less a disaster, but makes it all the more worse. He misrepresented his data to the American people. Was it a simple error? He deserves to be investigated.
You’d think that the quarter million dollar grant he got from John Kerry’s wife would have enabled him to buy a better caluclator. Just goes to show how having an agenda can cloud one’s judgement.
Meanwhile, our legislature moves forward debating only HOW MUCH to increase the historically-proven-ineffective, and costly-to-consumers, CAFE regulations. Also, ANWR is still virgin (undrilled) territory, egregious laws prohibiting refining capacity expansion are still in place, and some states have already succeeded in declaring CO2 a toxin.
It sure LOOKS like a NASA page:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/
According to the page:
And STILL they refuse to release either their data or process for scrutiny by outsiders.
There are federally funded educational organizations that are not “NASA” but contractors to NASA. These include the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for one. While JPL, with it’s myriad of missions and its operation of the Deep Space Network of tracking stations is considered part of NASA, GISS is just a small group working under contract to a real NASA center. GISS is nothing but a special contract vehicle to a non-profit organizations.
If you are familiar with MITRE or Aerospace, it would be akin to calling them part of the Air Force. They are FFRDC institutions under specialized contracts to the Federal Government.
Cheers, AJStrata
It looks like you are incorrect, AJ, doesn’t look like they are a contractor at all..
“is a laboratory of the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Cente”
They are a lab. Years ago I wes a contractor to NASA and have been to Goddard (worked at the building that had the shuttle payload bay mockup and acoutsic vibration chamber along with a couple of clean rooms and a deep space simulation chamber. This would be in the time just before Challenger malfunctioned. I know the difference between contractors and labs. Hansen himself might well be an employee of Columbia, I have never seen his paycheck but GISS is a “official” NASA lab who may or may not hire contractors to do the actual work involved.
But according to his NASA bio here he seems to be a NASA employee. His resume lists his current position as: 1981-present Director: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
So it certainly LOOKS like he is a NASA employee.
CP,
No, I am not incorrect. JPL is a lab and under contract to NASA. It is not a civil servant run organization. Now NASA employees can be detailed to work on site, so that is possible. But it would be simple – someone should ask who pays him!
See here for an example contract with Hansen’s name
BTW,
Even if I am wrong and he is a civil servant he is one voice – not “NASA”
CP,
Looks like you are right – GSFC considers GISS an element of GSFC. That actually makes this mistake much worse
The important point about him being a NASA employee is that the NASA director or even the office of the President of the United States could *compel* him to make that data and software public.
In California we were just hit with energy surcharges in order to reduce “global warming”. That decision was based, in part, on the work of GISS. That data is costing me real money out of my pocket. That data and software should be placed where others can verify its integrity.
Did Al Gore use his “internet” to hack NASA and increase Global Warming™?…
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