Both Bill Clinton and Bush Suppressed Science of Global Warming

AlterNet

AMY GOODMAN: So, before we go on to the Bush administration, where you did have the most trouble, can you talk about what happened during the Clinton years and how you were able to express or not your research?


DR. JAMES HANSEN: Well, the one particular event that stands out in my mind is when I wrote a paper called "Global Warming in the 21st Century: An Alternative Scenario," in which I emphasized that it's not only carbon dioxide, but other climate forcings -- methane and black soot -- and we need to address those also. And for some reason, the people in the White House didn't like emphasis on the non-CO2 parts of the story, and I just -- the press release just kept coming back, and I would try to change it, they would change it, and finally I gave up. I just couldn't get a press release through the way I wanted it.


JUAN GONZALEZ: So, in essence, in these kinds of press releases, there's a back-and-forth, as the White House or the environmental people at the White House --


DR. JAMES HANSEN: Yeah.


JUAN GONZALEZ: -- edit your press releases?


DR. JAMES HANSEN: Yeah. And that's another strange thing, because they don't even admit that it's going to the White House. You know, it goes to NASA headquarters, and then it sort of disappears for a couple weeks. And where is it? Well, it's very often at the White House, and I mentioned that. And now, they tried not to make that known, you know? And that's, again, something that's very inappropriate, in my opinion. And again, it's happened in both administrations.


AMY GOODMAN: So let's talk about what happened when the Bush administration came in. You were continuing to do your research. First of all, explain your place of work and the significance of NASA Goddard.


DR. JAMES HANSEN: Well, NASA is important, I think, because of the global observations that we make from satellites. We see what's happening, for example, on Greenland and then West Antarctica. My laboratory is also involved in the global models that try to interpret what's happening. And we're also located at Columbia University, where we have the opportunity to work with people who have the data from the history of the earth over thousands and millions of years. You put together these different things -- the satellite information, the information on how the earth responded in the past when greenhouse gases changed and other things changed, and the models -- and then you get a picture of how the system works.


And that's what really concerns me, because it's the inertia of the system which tells us we're already pushing it, so that it's going to respond more over the next several decades. There's a lot more climate response which is already in the pipeline, that we haven't seen it yet, and that's why we have to have an understanding of what's happening, so we can take the actions now before it's too late.