I am surprised no one else has covered this…I was even the first on dKos to post it. 60 Minutes just ran a piece NAILING Bush.
My wife works at GISS, the agency that Jim Hansen heads. She is a climatologist and she describes to me the increasing dread among climate scientists as it becomes clear that global warming not only is happening, but it is ACCELERATING faster than we had previously imagined. “Danger” and “tipping points” are words that Jim Hansen claims he has been told by the Bush Administration not to use. Tonight on 60 minutes he used them.
Jim Hansen is one of the top Global Warming scientists. He spent the entire first term of Bush’s administration trying to work with Bush on global warming. My wife heard him defend Bush in the first year, expressing his hope that Bush will keep his promises.
This relationship came to an end when Hansen came out in favor of Kerry and attacked Bush’s environmental record. Since then Bush has been censoring Jim Hansen, limiting what he could say and who he could say it to.
Tonight, on 60 Minutes, Jim Hansen fought back big time. The gist of teh segment was that Bush’s administration listens only to lawyers and oil interests when it comes to warming, has those lawyers EDIT SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, and censors anyone who disagrees with the administration’s party line. Nothing was held back. Bush was given no quarter. It was made clear that we are in grave danger from global warming, the danger is accelerating, and Bush has been PREVENTING anything from being done about it.
This goes along with my recent diary covering the fact that America CAN face global warming and be the stronger for it, but it will take leadership. And leadership is exactly what the Bush administration is incapable of giving America on any front.
Another apropos diary I wrote some time ago for my own newsletter covers the need for forest protection and reforestation to deal with global warmng AND a myriad of other environmental issues.
Jim Hansen has come out fighting and 60 Minutes has found its spine again. America…we know the danger, we know what we have to do. We have been warned by scientists for more than a decade what we face. No one can say that we couldn’t do anything about it.
America: you have been warned. What are you going to do about it?
Update [2006-3-20 17:33:18 by mole333]:For those who want to help amplify the impact of this 60 Minutes spot, please see this follow up diary for several suggestions. WE can help shape public opinion and the time to strike is now.