One of the world’s four or five leading global warming alarmists is James Hansen, who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. We have written about Mr. Hansen a number of times, including this post, which almost has to be read to be believed: Hansen, traveling in China, denounced the United States and hailed China as the world’s “best hope” to stave off global warming. Hansen described Americans as “barbarians” with a fake democracy, and urged China’s rulers to lead a boycott of the United States in the hope that it would bring our economy to its knees. One can only wonder what China’s autocrats made of this barely-sane proposal. One also wonders how NASA, which is supposed to be responsible for space travel, got into the business of trying to subvert our economy through unscientific hysteria.

A lot of NASA scientists and other employees are wondering the same thing. On March 28, fifty former NASA employees signed this letter to Charles Bolden, NASA’s Administrator:

Dear Charlie, We, the undersigned, respectfully request that NASA and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) refrain from including unproven remarks in public releases and websites. We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data. With hundreds of well-known climate scientists and tens of thousands of other scientists publicly declaring their disbelief in the catastrophic forecasts, coming particularly from the GISS leadership, it is clear that the science is NOT settled. The unbridled advocacy of CO2 being the major cause of climate change is unbecoming of NASA’s history of making an objective assessment of all available scientific data prior to making decisions or public statements. As former NASA employees, we feel that NASA’s advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate drivers is inappropriate. We request that NASA refrain from including unproven and unsupported remarks in its future releases and websites on this subject. At risk is damage to the exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA’s current or former scientists and employees, and even the reputation of science itself. For additional information regarding the science behind our concern, we recommend that you contact Harrison Schmitt or Walter Cunningham, or others they can recommend to you. Thank you for considering this request. Sincerely, (Attached signatures)

Hansen’s unscientific yammering about global warming has ruined the reputation of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and gravely damaged the image of NASA. Most recently, he has compared global warming to slavery:

Dealing with climate change is a moral issue on a par with ending slavery, the world’s most celebrated climate scientist, James Hansen, of Nasa, believes. Dr Hansen, who heads Nasa’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, will be making the slavery comparison in his acceptance speech for the Edinburgh Medal next Tuesday, when he will also be calling for a global tax on all carbon emissions. Nothing less will do, he will argue, so urgent is the challenge which climate change presents for future generations.

One thing about slavery, as opposed to anthropogenic global warming, is that it actually exists, to a significant degree. In fact, by some estimates there is more slavery in the world today than in the 19th century. So if Hansen actually cared about slavery as a moral evil as opposed to a rhetorical device, he could devote what remains of his career to combating it, instead of stirring up hysteria in an effort to destroy the world’s economy.