Month 4, Day 10: Saturday POTUS

I figured I’d send the President a letter urging him to take James Hansen more seriously. I mean, now that he’s won the Sophie Prize and all.

Dear President Obama,

I write to urge you to extend public recognition from your Administration to Dr. James Hansen, the eminent climatologist who has just been awarded the Sophie Prize. Especially given that Dr. Hansen was subjected to flagrant censorship by the Bush administration, it would be a significant gesture for you and your environmental experts to acknowledge the value and relevance of his work. It would be even more appropriate for you to offer Dr. Hansen a place in your administration’s climate-science team; his work is of the highest possible quality and the greatest possible significance.

The Bush Administration’s suppression of Dr. Hansen’s results is shocking and shameful (although it was a foregone conclusion that it would do no good, I wrote them letters at the time protesting this terrible behavior). The appalling fact is that our national politics has been infected with a virulent and pernicious form of stupidity; George W. Bush and his anti-science cohort were (and are) symptoms of this disease, and because his conclusions failed to fit their predetermined narrative, Dr. Hansen had to be censored.

While your administration is an enormous improvement on its predecessor, I am still waiting for signs that you can address global climate change with the degree of urgency that is needed. One such sign would be a public acknowledgment that Dr. Hansen was shamefully treated by the previous administration — and that he is a scientist of immense value to the fight against catastrophic climate change.

Such an acknowledgment would be both morally appropriate and scientifically sound. We need James Hansen’s voice, now more than ever.

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders