NASA Chief Takes The Long View On Climate Change

NASA Head Michael D. Griffin articulated his views on global climate, taking in the big picture, and says exactly what I think about efforts to "change" our climate:

"To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change," Griffin said.

"First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown," he continued. "And second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

Wow. Refreshing. In the AP version of the story, global warming alarmists are quickly trotted out to "balance" this rhetoric:

Jerry Mahlman, a former top scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who is now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said Griffin's remarks showed he was either "totally clueless" or "a deep anti-global warming ideologue."

James Hansen, a top NASA climate scientist, said Griffin's comments showed "arrogance and ignorance," because millions of people will likely be harmed by global warming in the future.

I thought James Hansen was being censored and couldn't say this stuff. I guess he found a way to get past his minders. Notice that both attack a reasonable philosophical position about our current place in geological history with insults or false suppositions. Griffin said that NASA has found a trend toward warming in recent years, which knocks Mahlman out of the water and shows his own cluelessness. Hansen, of course, is Hansen, and displays his own brand of arrogance. I like the NASA spokeman's response to all this by stressing that "NASA's position is that it provides scientific data on the issue, but policy makers are the ones who decide." Too many climate scientists have become policy advocates for their theories, and the consequences of combining the roles of researchers and activists has brought us to the current state of (non)science for this fledgling discipline.