conormulligan.com / blog

Dr. James E. Hansen is a World-renowned climatologist at NASA, widely praised for being one of the first scientists to recognise the effect of man-made carbon-dioxide production on the environment in a congressional testimony in the 1980’s.

Today, Dr. Hansen is back before congress, renewing his 20-year-old call to action:

On Monday, Dr. Hansen, 67, plans to give a briefing organized by a House committee and say that it is almost, but not quite, too late to start defusing what he calls the “global warming time bomb.” He will offer a plan for cuts in emissions and also a warning about the risks of further inaction.

The New York Times

Although he is vilified by some on the right for his stance on global warming, Dr. Hansen is one of the most credible climatologists in the World, and deserves to be heard. He is currently the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Al Gore’s chief science advisor.

It certainly took some time, but tonight Al Gore will endorse Obama in Flint, Michigan.

As many point out, this will not win Barack Obama an awful lot of new votes but it does get some hardcore Democratic activists and fundraisers on board.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Gore performs on the stump (assuming he’s going to campaign for Obama); while he was not an incredibly gifted speaker eight years ago, his style has matured significantly over the years, and would make for a commanding presence on the campaign trail.