James Hansen

The climate guru over at NASA seems to have been inhaling a tad too much rocket fuel.

James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

We do have something called a "crime against humanity" if not one against nature as yet. But it would be a very odd trial in which such people were accused of the use of their First Amendment rights to free speech really. For while I can think of a number of restrictions upon said free speech, libel, not shouting fire in a crowded theatre, incitment to violence, I still haven't some across one which says that it is a crime to be misguided. Or, even if Hansen is to be believed, spouting outright lies....alhough, to be honest here, there's an intriguiing thought there, isn't there? If lying is to become a crime then political campaigns are going to be a great deal shorter, aren't they?

In an interview with the Guardian he said: "When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime."

Be careful of what you start calling a crime Jim laddie: there are those who are convinced that you have not been above the odd shading of nuances to make your points as well.

He is also considering personally targeting members of Congress who have a poor track record on climate change in the coming November elections. He will campaign to have several of them unseated.

That part's fine of course. Go join whichever political campaign you wish: it is, after all, still a free country.

His sharpest words are reserved for the special interests he blames for public confusion about the nature of the global warming threat. "The problem is not political will, it's the alligator shoes - the lobbyists. It's the fact that money talks in Washington, and that democracy is not working the way it's intended to work."

That's really the part that amuses. The entire body politic does not do what one loudmouth (for that Hansen certainly is, whether he's "leading" or not) scientist desires and thus democracy isn't working?