NASA climate change guru getting rich

[DarrinS]

NASA Scientist Accused of Using Celeb Status Among Environmental Groups to Enrich Himself

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/22/nasa-scientist-accused-using-celeb-status-among-environmental-groups-to-enrich/#ixzz1Q1lpegWy




The NASA scientist who once claimed the Bush administration tried to "silence" his global warming claims is now accused of receiving more than $1.2 million from the very environmental organizations whose agenda he advocated.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, D.C., a group claims NASA is withholding documents that show James Hansen failed to comply with ethics rules and financial disclosures regarding substantial compensation he earned outside his $180,000 taxpayer-paid position as director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.


"Hansen's office appears to be somewhat of a rogue operation. It's clearly a taxpayer-funded global warming advocacy organization," said Chris Horner, a co-founder of The American Tradition Institute, which filed the lawsuit. "The real issue here is, has Hansen been asking NASA in writing, in advance, for permission for these outside activities? We have reason to believe that has not been occurring."

The lawsuit claims Hansen privately profited from his public job in violation of federal ethics rules, and NASA allowed him to do it because of his influence in the media and celebrity status among environmental groups, which rewarded him handsomely the last four years.

Gifts, speaking fees, prizes and consulting compensation include:

-- A shared $1 million prize from the Dan David Foundation for his "profound contribution to humanity." Hansen's cut ranged from $333,000 to $500,000, Horner said, adding that the precise amount is not known because Hansen's publicly available financial disclosure form only shows the prize was "an amount in excess of $5,000."

-- The 2010 Blue Planet prize worth $550,000 from the Asahi Glass Foundation, which recognizes efforts to solve environmental issues.

-- The Sophie Prize for his "political activism," worth $100,000. The Sophie Prize is meant to "inspire people working towards a sustainable future."

-- Speaking fees totaling $48,164 from a range of mostly environmental organizations.

-- A $15,000 participation fee, waived by the W.J. Clinton Foundation for its 2009 Waterkeeper Conference.

-- $720,000 in legal advice and media consulting services provided by The George Soros Open Society Institute. Hansen said he did not take "direct" support from Soros but accepted "pro bono legal advice."

Hansen did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.

Federal rules prohibit government employees from receiving certain types of income outside their job. Employees are required to file Form 17-60 in writing before any outside activity. And annually, they're required to submit Form SF 278, after receiving outside compensation.

The American Tradition Institute filed a Freedom of Information Act request for those two documents for Hansen. The lawsuit claims NASA has "repeatedly and unlawfully refused to produced the requested materials."

"Should the taxpayer know what's going on? Should, as FOIA intends, NASA disclose documents to shed light on its operations and its compliance within the law? We say yes. The law says yes. NASA says no," Horner said.

Mark Hess, chief of communications for the Goddard Space Center, sent Fox News NASA's response to Horner's FOIA request. It said in many cases the documents Horner requested did not exist. Horner claims they should, if Hansen was complying with the law.

[Wild Cobra]

What surprises me is that it took so long for such a story to surface.

--- wait ----

Let me take that back. I forgot the media was in for this whole idea from the start.

[Wild Cobra]

How many times have I complained about and questioned Hansen's integrity in the past anyway? I lost count.

I wonder if anyone will investigate the fraudulent climate findings of the GISS?

[boutons_deux]

How much are the Kock Bros, oil/gascos, USCoC paying you guys to pimp for the AGW denials?

"Federal rules prohibit government employees from receiving certain types of income outside their job. Employees are required to file Form 17-60 in writing before any outside activity. And annually, they're required to submit Form SF 278, after receiving outside compensation."

did he receive such income? did NOT submit the forms if they applied to him?

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Tradition_Institute

grass roots? how about AstroTurf grass?

[Wild Cobra]

How much are the Kock Bros, oil/gascos, USCoC paying you guys to pimp for the AGW denials?

You mean I can get paid?

Where do I sign up?

[ElNono]

I don't particularly side with the climate change crowd, but when the best you have to attack a scientist is his administrative paperwork...

[RandomGuy]

I don't particularly side with the climate change crowd, but when the best you have to attack a scientist is his administrative paperwork...

Ad hominem, rinse, repeat. :sleep

[MannyIsGod]

Wait - Darrin defender of the rich has a problem with this?

[MannyIsGod]

A few examples: Horner accuses Hansen of receiving $1.2 million in outside income for work done as a federal employee. He does not note in the commentary (though it is stated in the lawsuit), that most of these monies were for international prize awards which, like a Nobel Prize, can be accepted by federal employees and do not count as 'outside activity' for which permission must be sought. The relevent federal ethics guidelines are quite explicit (http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=e62a2086dab40719f9b70b63a58695eb&rgn=div5&view=text&node=5:3.0.10.10.9&idno=5#5:3.0.10.10.9.2.50.4) (see part d.1, and example 1). The four prizes in question (the Blue Planet Prize (http://www.af-info.or.jp/en/blueplanet/list.html) $550,000, the Heinz award (http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients/all) $250,000, the Dan David award ($333,000?) and the Sophie Prize, $100,000) are all examples of an


... award .. made as part of an established program of recognition:

(i) Under which awards have been made on a regular basis or which is funded, wholly or in part, to ensure its continuation on a regular basis; and

(ii) Under which selection of award recipients is made pursuant to written standards.

for which no prior permission is required.

Thus the insinuation that Hansen might not have complied with ethics guidelines by not filing 'Outside activity' forms for these prizes (which are not required) is clearly misleading (forms would have been required for speaking engagements and the like which apparently total to only $48,000 over 4 years).

http://climscifoi.blogspot.com/2011/06/ati-nasa-lawsuit.html

[Winehole23]

Fake outrage alert, level zero. Failed at delivery.

[ChumpDumper]

lol permission to accept an award

[baseline bum]

Darrin and WC love the conspiracy theories. Are they mouse trolls?

[mouse]

unless our screen names are the ones on our birth certificates,
then we are all TRolls!

[boutons_deux]

You mean I can get paid?

Where do I sign up?

If you aren't getting paid, then you're just a dumbfuck, duped by your own ideological biases and the scumbags who are paid to lie and dirty tricks for the carbon industries.

[DMX7]

Bush gets speaking fees and he tried to sell America to Halliburton.

[greyforest]

"Here's some money. Shut the fuck up."

[ElNono]

http://i56.tinypic.com/214z3nb.jpg

You actually spent time doing that? :lol

[boutons_deux]

GOP Candidates’ Positions on Climate Change Are Not Consistent With Their Religious Leaders

Many of the GOP presidential candidates are seeking the votes of church-goers and religious conservatives by presenting themselves as strong defenders of their faith.

However, while candidates mostly agree with their respective churches on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, they are mostly silent when it comes to environmental issues. Why? Perhaps because their stances directly conflict with the positions of their churches.

A number of leading candidates have embraced an extremist anti-environment platform, in which they deny climate change science, call for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, and support the deregulation of the oil and coal industries.

In contrast, their churches call for environmental stewardship and creation care. Their faith leaders have advocated support for the EPA, greater education on environmental care, and policies to reduce air toxins and lower emissions from power plants.

When it comes to climate change, Gingrich, Santorum, Pawlenty, Bachmann and Cain are out of step with their own churches. And they’re also out of step with the people they represent. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, there is strong support across faith traditions on environmental care, including 73% of white evangelicals, 79% of black Protestants, and 85% Catholics – all communities that GOP candidates are reaching out to.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/27/254449/gop-candidates%E2%80%99-positions-on-climate-change-are-not-consistent-with-their-religious-leaders/

========

So who's financing the climate denial lying game? UCA/VRWC and their Repug whores

[Wild Cobra]

I think too many people worry about the religious right.

[boutons_deux]

the religious right, evangelical assholes, tea baggers are the tail that wags the Repugs dogs.

[Wild Cobra]

the religious right, evangelical assholes, tea baggers are the tail that wags the Repugs dogs.
The RINOs need their tail grabbed and swing in circles so hard, then let go!

[PublicOption]

well, sarah palin thinks God is an American citizen

g3fm_IQ5Hco&feature=relmfu

[boutons_deux]

Power companies fund anti-climate research on ‘solar variability’

The oil and gas industry gave astrophysicist Willie Soon more than $1 million over the past decade to fund publications that challenge man-made climate change, according to a report released today by Greenpeace.

Soon is a popular figure among skeptics for his assertions that the sun, not greenhouse gases, affects global temperatures. He works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where energy companies have exclusively funded his research for the past five years,

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/28/256012/june-28-news-home-wind-turbine-sales-soar-industry-funds-climate-deniers-hot-fires-styme-forest-regeneration/

========

WC just loves industry-funded warming-denying "solar variability' "research"

[mouse]

What NASA Scientist is not rich?

http://media.filmschoolrejects.com/images/capricornone-01.jpg

[Agloco]

What NASA Scientist is not rich?

http://media.filmschoolrejects.com/images/capricornone-01.jpg

I know a few.

[RandomGuy]

I think too many people worry about the religious right.

I think not enough people worry about the religious right.

[boutons_deux]

Darrin, WC, etc are in an elite group of shitbag slanderers and smearers

Fox News Compares James Hansen’s Prizes for Truth Telling to Big Tobacco Paying a Doctor to Deny the Risks of Smoking

no surprise that the head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies is the subject of lawsuits and smears by the fossil-fuel-funded anti-science deniers who want unrestricted pollution, whose efforts, if successful, would doom billions to a ruined climate.

The latest effort is this lawsuit by Christopher Horner (of the American Tradition Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute), which is debunked here (and below). This smearing of scientists is what Horner does for a living (see Inhofe, Horner, McIntyre and Watts fabricate another phony “despicable smear” against Michael Mann).

one of the core strategies of the climate science deniers is to promote the laughable notion that workaholic scientists like Hansen are ‘in it for the money’ – when anyone who knows real scientists understands that this isn’t the profession anyone goes into to make money.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/28/253240/fox-news-james-hansen/

[Wild Cobra]

Power companies fund anti-climate research on ‘solar variability’

The oil and gas industry gave astrophysicist Willie Soon more than $1 million over the past decade to fund publications that challenge man-made climate change, according to a report released today by Greenpeace.

Soon is a popular figure among skeptics for his assertions that the sun, not greenhouse gases, affects global temperatures. He works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where energy companies have exclusively funded his research for the past five years,

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/28/256012/june-28-news-home-wind-turbine-sales-soar-industry-funds-climate-deniers-hot-fires-styme-forest-regeneration/

========

WC just loves industry-funded warming-denying "solar variability' "research"
I'll bet that he already had data to show antropogenic glogal warming is far less than claimed. I'll bet he needed money to publish, so he was able to find it by those who had such an interest.

To suggest he was paid for an opinion...

Give me a break. Plenty of evidence out there to show AGW is less than stated by the alarmists.

[Wild Cobra]

Darrin, WC, etc are in an elite group of shitbag slanderers and smearers

Fox News Compares James Hansen’s Prizes for Truth Telling to Big Tobacco Paying a Doctor to Deny the Risks of Smoking

no surprise that the head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies is the subject of lawsuits and smears by the fossil-fuel-funded anti-science deniers who want unrestricted pollution, whose efforts, if successful, would doom billions to a ruined climate.

The latest effort is this lawsuit by Christopher Horner (of the American Tradition Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute), which is debunked here (and below). This smearing of scientists is what Horner does for a living (see Inhofe, Horner, McIntyre and Watts fabricate another phony “despicable smear” against Michael Mann).

one of the core strategies of the climate science deniers is to promote the laughable notion that workaholic scientists like Hansen are ‘in it for the money’ – when anyone who knows real scientists understands that this isn’t the profession anyone goes into to make money.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/28/253240/fox-news-james-hansen/
You can say what you want, but I have no doubt in my mind that Hansen uses his job to suit his activism, and that his research is colored by his bias.

[mouse]

I know a few.

Post a photo of they're homes..... cars, .....refrigerators.......you lie to people about how safe Radiation is everyday for a living you make a very good living and money......you....know not what poor is..




http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/RackTheMouse/DSCF1706.jpg

[Halberto]

^very close to my pantry. I have more canned fruit than that though. Last night I ate a can of black beans for dinner :lol

[wannabe Moderator]

:lmao

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I think too many people worry about the religious right.

Someone did not pay attention to the Texas Education Board from last year.

[Winehole23]

I did. There was a backlash and the most egregious jackasses either retired or got tossed out on their pompous asses by the voters. You talk as if the same people are still running the Education Board. That is not the case.

BTW, did you have a point?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I did. There was a backlash and the most egregious jackasses either retired or got tossed out on their pompous asses by the voters. You talk as if the same people are still running the Education Board. That is not the case.

BTW, did you have a point?

i only seem to talk like that to people that are taking stupid pills. What do 'from last year' mean?

The situation came into being because members of the religious right were elected to office. Whether or not they got away with their nonsense is immaterial. Is it that hard to understand?

They are still very well funded as evidenced by the millions that waste their money every sunday.

[Winehole23]

The situation came into being because members of the religious right were elected to office. Whether or not they got away with their nonsense is immaterial.I disagree. If they're credited with getting elected in the first place, getting turned out of office isn't immaterial. You picked a stale example.

[Winehole23]

They are still very well funded as evidenced by the millions that waste their money every sunday.People give money to their churches. Do you have a problem with that?