NASA Scientist Wants Oil Company CEOs Prosecuted

On the 20th anniversary of his landmark congressional testimony, James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, appeared again before Congress today, calling for the CEOs of oil companies to be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature. 

Hansen accused executives of firms such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of actively spreading misinformation and doubt about climate change, and compared the CEOs to tobacco company executives who years ago tried to cloud the association between smoking and cancer.   

Hansen, who leads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, argued that radical steps should be immediately taken to halt the "perfect storm" of irreversible climate change.

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

Hansen is also considering personally targeting members of Congress in the upcoming November elections who have poor records on climate change, and will actively campaign to have several of them unseated.

Hansen’s speech to Congress on June 23 1988 is seen as a pivotal event in raising public attention to the threat of global warming.  At a time when most scientists were still hesitant to speak publicly about the issue, Hansen said the evidence of the greenhouse gas effect was 99% certain.

"It is time to stop waffling,” he said.

Hansen told the House select committee on energy independence and global warming that he is now 99% sure that levels of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere have already risen beyond what is considered safe.

Currently, that concentration is 385 parts per million, but is increasing by 2ppm annually.   Hansen said 2009 would be a critical year, since the U.S. will inaugurate a new president and talks will resume on how to best follow the Kyoto agreement.

He wants a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants, along with the creation of a large grid of low-loss electric power lines buried under ground and spread across the country.   He maintains this would provide wind and solar power a chance to compete.  

"The new US president would have to take the initiative analogous to Kennedy’s decision to go to the moon," he told The Guardian.

Hansen’s sharpest remarks were reserved for the special interest groups he faults for creating confusion among the public about the threat of global warming.

"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," he said.

A report by The Guardian said a group seeking to add pressure on governments around the world is launching a campaign today called 350.org.  The organization is taking out full-page ads in prominent newspapers such as the Swedish Falukuriren and the New York Times calling for the target level of CO2 to be lowered to 350ppm.  150 signatories, including Hansen, have supported the initiative.