Friday, April 13, 2012

After 3 year hiatus the Left resumes concern about 'freedom of speech,' per global warming advocate Gavin Schmidt. Welcome back, Gavin!

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Gavin Schmidt in an email, "What the letter writers are advocating for is for the NASA bureaucracy to limit other scientists' freedom of speech".... But Schmidt is incorrect to say NASA doesn't take positions on issues. NASA is a political entity reporting to the president of the US, is tasked with carrying out a "government agenda" and working with the White House, per a NASA 12/13/10 press release.

4/11/12, "Are 49 Former NASA Astronauts, Scientists and Engineers Climate Change Deniers?," Reason.com, Ronald Bailey

"The blogosphere is buzzing about a letter sent to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden by 49 former NASA astronauts, scientists, and engineers complaining about the agency's promotion of "catastrophic forecasts" of man-made climate change. The full letter via The Financial Post is below: (link)...

It seems unlikely that Bolden will do anything to change NASA GISS' official position on the looming dangers of climate change.

Update: I posted this item at 5:40 pm and 15 minutes later received an email from NASA GISS researcher Gavin Schmidt. I asked him if he'd like me to post his email as update and he sent me the version below:

Neither GISS, nor NASA in general, ever take 'positions' on scientific matters. This is well explained by the Chief Scientist, Waleed Abdalati,

http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=36679

and is basically a restatement of the ex-Adminstrator's comments many years ago:

http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/griffin_science.html

What the letter writers are advocating for is for the NASA bureaucracy to limit other scientists' freedom of speech, and that is something that I am surprised that you would support.

Oddly, I don't think that reporting a newsworthy letter by the 49 signatories suggests that I support limiting anyone's freedom of speech.

On the other hand, I do happen to know of a current case in which a federal researcher whose freedom of speech is being limited (in the sense his superiors threaten to fire him) if he doesn't stop publishing work skeptical of various environmental shibboleths. Unfortunately, I am not a liberty to identify this researcher.

In any case, if readers are interested in the private "official position" of NASA GISS chief researcher, James Hansen, they may want to consider reading (as I did) his book, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity." via Climate Depot

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4/12/12, "If NASA has no official position on climate change, what is this?" Maurizio Morabito, (omnologos)

If NASA has no official position on climate change, as claimed to Andy Revkin by as-usual clueless Gavin Schmidt, what is this? “NASA Policy Statement - Adapting to a Changing Climate” (May 2011)

There are two points about it:

(1) I won’t hold my breath waiting for some of the involved folks to wake up to the idea that if they write something as “NASA Head of this” or “NASA Head of that”, then ipso facto their statements will be taken as “Official NASA Position” on this or that.

In the private sector, anything one writes is of course considered what his/her company thinks about that course of business. How can it be any different?

(2) NASA doesn’t live in a vacuum. It can’t play the Ivory Tower Scientist today, and the Federal Agency tomorrow. If the Government pursues one particular line of thought (eg for worry of dangerous climate change), then NASA of course is pursuing that same line of thought.

Therefore…NASA has a very big OFFICIAL POSITION on climate change indeed."

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12/13/2010, "NASA Names Waleed Abdalati As Agency's New Chief Scientist," NASA, spaceref.com

"He (Abdalati) will advocate for NASA science in the context of those broader government science agendas and work closely with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Management and Budget."...

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4/13/12, "Waleed Abdalati…Who he?," bu Maurizio Morabito (omnilogos)

"So who’s the guy who replied to a letter asking NASA to stay away from “unbridled advocacy” on climate change, by stating “NASA sponsors research into many areas of cutting-edge scientific inquiry” (a response “not all that relevant” to the original request, as noted by Judith Curry)? And more importantly, what are or have been his views on climate change?"...

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NASA's Gavin Schmidt, photo UK Guardian, 2009

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