The scientist: Jim Hansen.
Report from describes the specific action leading to the arrest as
Hannah, Hansen, former Rep. Ken Hechler and 27 others then sat on the road and were arrested on misdemeanor charges of obstruction and impeding traffic.
Like Hannah, Hansen and Hechler (HHH), I’m not a big fan of mountaintop removal mining. I was puzzled that the EPA has gone easy on that during the Obama administration. I suspect many people aren’t particularly fond of the practice. So, this particular act of civil disobedience may achieve the goals of those who want to put an end to the practice. Still, that might depend on what else happened today.
I’d better turn on the nightly news to see if this even makes the front page though. Iraq and South Korea may still be dominating the news cycle.
I am not a fan of MTR either, but…much of the mining in the world is open pit mining, which is really the same as MTR, only INTO the ground.
I am not sure of Appalachian environment laws, but I would be very surprised if the law did NOT require the company to put the land back into an “equivalent use” state.
Most US/Canada environmental laws are more or less in sync by treaty; both environmental and economic treaties.
In Alberta, all sites; gravel pits, mines, temporary roads, logging sites AND oil sands; need to be returned to “equivalent use” state.
Its not quick, but trees don’t grow overnight. Average remediation time is estimated at 20-50 years.
Companies are required to post an environmental bond, to cover the cost of remediation. If the company goes bust, the bond is used to pay for the work.
All companies in Canada, also pay into an industry mandated “orphan fund”, to pay the cost of remediation if the original company, and its bond, are unable to cover the costs. Most of this “orphan fund” money is currently used to repair damage from pre-legislation work. Some wells in Turner Valley are from the 20s and 30s, and the company that did the original damage is long gone.
The cost of remediation in the Oil Sands is not that high, at about 20,000 CAD/acre. Assuming 10,000 bbls oil/acre, it works out to about $2 per bbl of oil recovered. This is less than 3% of current selling price.
In the stage managed world of DC politics, I think the idea may be to go with the status quo, hoping to get a big ‘public’ demand to change.
Then, reluctantly, the Admin would ‘give in’ to the demand for ‘change’.
Les– Yes. Mining is not pretty. Heck, gravel quaries aren’t pretty. I’ve skied on mountains in Idaho that used to be mines. (I doubt the tops were taken off, but I’m sure the mines scarred the mountain when they were there.)
Mostly, I’m waiting to see what happens on the arrest. Will Hansen post bail? Spend much time in prison? Etc. It will be interesting to follow.
That should read “Celebrity, NASA employee arrested…”
Mountains appear to be a bit like baby seals or dolphins. The cute and cuddly of the geological world.
It’s just stuff piled in a heap.
Scooter,
I was indeed wondering whether the thread title was a lapse in english, or an ironic comment.
I literally cut and pasted the title. I wanted you to see that Hansen wasn’t even named. 🙂
Anthony Watts will have hissy fit if Hansen doesn’t get the rubber hose.
Boris–
Yes. I think Anthony is more upset about Hansen than I am. I’m just wondering what will happen.
I think civil servants should not lose their right to protest or speak as private citizens. Sometimes, Hansen has slipped up an used NASA stationary– but it’s not all the time. Even when he doesn’t use his NASA title, it gets tacked on news stories.
Still, I don’t know the usual procedures that apply when a civil servant (aka government employee) is arrested and/or can’t report to work or carry out work duties because he’s in jail. So… will he post bail? Sit in jail “x” number of days? If he’s in jail a long time… then what? I have no theories– I’m just waiting to see.
Unfortunately I think it “biases” his GISS temp data… sorry. Anyone who his keeper of this governmental VIP data should not be doing this. Ordinary folks of course but not in this precarious obviously clash of interest position
Has anyone found the mug shots of Hansen after his arrest?? We could put his “mug” on a coffee mug… ;^)
I think this is a great plot for a TV show: Noble (and Brilliant) Scientist arrested for opposing The Mean Destroyers of Earth.
I should write for The Guide.
Andrew
VG–
Clearly, it fosters the perception the GISStemp record could be biased due to the head of GISS. After all, there are people who think it’s biased, and they point to Hansen’s activism as evidence for their position.
I’m not convinced the temperature record is intentionally biased. I think the long term record contains the sorts of problems one would expect in historic records of this sort. Since errors are frozen in, and we can’t remeasure, for all practical purposes, biases will exist.
Oddly, for all the flak I get for looking at shorter term records, I think the advantage of the shorter term records is that the data are under much more intense scrutiny right now. If, in a couple of years, the temperatures since 2001 turn up, that will be that. It’s very unlikely anyone will be able to trace it to fiddling with stations, worrying about buckets or jet intakes etc.
So, right now, I’m watching one of the following things to happen:
1) When El Nino comes will the IPCC projections reject on the high side using “red corrected” least squares ? If (as Tamino suggests) red correction doesn’t adequately deal with “noise” and greatly under-estimates the uncertainty, and the IPCC trends are correct or low this is fairly likely to happen.
2) If we pass El Nino with no rejection on the high side, will we return to rejections during the next La Nina? If the long trend is low, that will happen.
3) If neither happens, I’ll be monitoring type II error, and let all y’all know when the type II error is sufficiently low to say “fail to reject” is pretty much equivalent to “null hypothesis really is correct” rather than “null hypothesis is not proven wrong”.
FrankK– Who holds the copyright on mug shots? The police department? Are they in the public domain? If not… can’t do it.
FrankK– Who holds the copyright on mug shots? The police department? Are they in the public domain? If not… can’t do it.
Hi Lucia,
I was (partly) joking about the mugs on a mug. But you do bring up a good question. I would think that mug shots may be in the public domain (as they are acquired by a government entity – the police), but I don’t know for sure…
Its a simple misdemeanor. Hansen will most likely get slapped with a fine (akin to a traffic ticket) and in the worst case spend the night in jail. Unlike the DC power plant protest, it looks like Hansen et al actually managed to convince the police to make arrests this time around. In the odd Kabuki theater of modern protest, purposefully getting arrested to generate media coverage is pretty standard practice. :-p
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Regardless, taking a personal leave day to protest is not really grounds for dismissal by any reasonable stretch of the imagination.
Like all civil rights “arrests” these days, these will be walk-through procedures. It’s like catch and release fishing, but the fish gets to boast about putting up a great fight.
I always suspected Mr. Hansen was a criminal. Now everyone knows he is one. 😉
Andrew
Zeke,
No. I wouldn’t think so.
This is why I wanted to see if he got any coverage on tv. I was wondering how many people watched this particular Kabuki performance.
I didn’t see anything on tv. The television broadcasts I saw focused on the theaters in Korea and Iran, healthcare, the economy and sports. I don’t watch late night talk shows. Anyone see anything?
For the last 70 years, federal law has prohibited civil servants from engaging in partisan political activity. Such activity undermines confidence in the fairness of govt.
Hansen may not have violated the letter of the law in this instance, but he clearly violated its spirit. He undermines his own credibility and that of his agency by actions like this. Given that his credibility has already been severely damaged, he showed exceedingly poor judgment by getting involved in this protest.
Sadly, I don’t think anyone is surprised. No one really expects him to show any better judgment.
Stan,
Protesting mountaintop removal is hardly partisan activity, and a number of folks on either side of the AGW debate would favor restricting its practice. I don’t necessarily think participation in this protest is “poor judgement” on Hansen’s behalf. Indeed, his standing up for his beliefs likely endears him to just as many folks as it offends. The caricature of Hansen as delusional rogue activist is hardly universal, as the AMS award among recent plaudits aptly demonstrates.
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I may not agree with all of Hansen’s statements (and I think a fair many have expressed a degree of certainty unwarranted by the state of the science for some impacts). But protest activity on his part doesn’t necessarily make me think less of him. In general, it simply makes him a more polarizing figure: those who already liked him will hold him up as a brave scientist willing to take a stand, and those who already disliked him will just think him more a delusional fool.
Zeke– I agree protesting makes Hansen more polarizing. That said, intentional political activity usually makes people more polarizing. There are very, very few politicians who can truly unite people with opposing views especially on the issues where they differ. (Yes. People can drop their differences of opinion on “X” to work toward common good “Y”. That’s different from getting them to agree on “X”.)
re mountain top removal
IMO the issue wrt mtr is not so much cutting off the mountain, but where you put the spoils. Bottom line, I think Hansen protests because he objects to ANY use of coal.
Zeke-
Please explain to me how someone who compares coal trains to Nazi death trains and states that energy company execs should be locked up could be anything other than a ‘delusional fool.’ His position at GISS demands that he behave in a manner that does not call into question his scientific integrity. There is simply too much at stake for both sides of the debate.
Sleeper,
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Hansen’s remarked that coal trains were akin to death trains carrying away the world’s species to extinction. And the executives on trial remark referred to those who had willingly distorted the science for financial gain.
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I’ll agree that both remarks were in poor taste or gross over exaggerations. But, like the protest, their impact on Hansen’s credibility will be interpreted in dramatically different ways by people based on their view of the severity and danger of projected AGW. Case-in-point: Chris Mooney’s response to the former pointing out that “Not even heroes are perfect”.
http://www.desmogblog.com/james-hansen-and-the-holocaust-frame-because-not-even-heroes-are-perfect
I don’t have a problem with Hansen (or anyone for, that matter) demonstrating as a private citizen. I happen to agree that MTR is a horrible idea (as a young geology student many years ago I visited Utah’s porphyry Cu Bingham Mine and was astounded by the irreconcilable enormity of everything), but to my mind it is freedom of expression that’s the issue, not MTR or global warming. The media might mention his gov’t position to raise circulation, but as long as he does not himself use it to endorse his viewpoint then there shouldn’t be an issue.
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Having said that, Hansen’s tasteless remarks (as per Sleeper and Zeke) were simply ridiculous and not the catastrophic AGW movement’s finest moment. Its like some white guy other than Quentin Tarantino thinking he can freely use the “N” word. And from the link Zeke kindly provided, it appears that Hansen’s apology/clarification/explanation of the “death train” remark invoked other Nazi imagery (“Can these crashing glaciers serve as a Krystal Nacht, and wake us up to the inhumane consequences of averting our eyes?”). Makes you cringe, doesn’t it? His views are certainly politicized, but he’s a terrible politician (I suppose we should be thankful for that).
I think I must be the only person in the universe who doesn’t feel compelled to say something bad about MTR…
Andrew_FL,
I am likewise uncompelled to say anything about MTR. Make that 2 in the universe. I will say something about GTR, though. They were an awesome band for their short lifespan as such!
Andrew
My objection is not that he uses his position at GISS to enhance his advocacy, but that his public statements are not those of calmly rational scientist- one who is capable of recognizing, say, confirmation bias. It is a public position that he holds, and he has an obligation to maintain a credibility that is recognized by all sides, not just the side he’s advocating for, if only because his salary is paid by everyone.
As I recall, Thoreau spent one night in jail and when a neighbor or relative bailed him out (against his wishes) he was no longer welcome at the jailhouse.
Zeke,
Sorry. Completely unpersuasive. The general public perception is that the type of person who gets himself arrested in a protest demonstration is a radical activist. It is not the kind of behavior most people expect of someone who should be objective and open-minded.
Hansen is supposed to do his job as a scientist — one who is open to the facts, realizes that the scientific understanding is always changing, and ready to reject prior hypotheses when the evidence leads to that conclusion. Most Americans will not perceive an arrested protest demonstrater as the type person who should be in charge of a government science program
Really, really bad judgment — assuming that his first priority is his job.
Hansen has become a prophet, and I am betting his behavior will become more and more radical and his message less persuasive over time. He will eventually find that his real enemies are not the wicked coal execs, but rather the politicians who tire of his apocalyptic – and wrong- message of doom.
Here is an example of how ‘doom’ is a message with limited appeal:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/717889/invader_zim_the_doom_song/
HankHenry-Wiki says it was his aunt, and she paid his taxes not bail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
As an aside, given his anarchist tendencies, Thoreau is a curious choice for inspiration for command and control liberal environmetalists…;)
Of course, I always thought he was a bit nuts. Read Walden and I think you will agree. I prefer Emerson any day.