Jim Hansen Takes on NRDC and Bank of America

Scientist Dr. Jim Hansen speaks to activists outside NRDC building in New York

“Cap and trade with  offsets would guarantee that we pass climate tipping points, locking in climate disasters for our children. Cap and trade benefits only Wall Street and polluters, sacrificing humanity and nature for their profits.” Dr. Jim Hansen

Will the media and policy makers finally wake up and pay attention after the world’s leading global warming scientists takes the extraordinary and unprecedented step to publicly criticize US national environmental groups for their lax posture on global warming?

Or will the mighty Obama Administration, Democratic Washington DC beltway, and corporate PR Wurlitzer continue to dominate US public opinion?

[Update: NYC Independent media: NRDC Protested For Greenwashing and Support of Carbon Trading and Coal!

Alternet: Activists Protest Environmental Agency for Collaborating With Polluters

After years of battling NJ environmental groups for their support of the symbolic political gesture known as the NJ Global Warming Response Act (see NJ Star Ledger Op-Ed: “No teeth in “tough” pollution law” ) and the fatally flawed Regional Green House Gas Initiative (RGGI) cap and trade program (e.g. see “Lame Global Warming Bill Goes to Governor“, and see this and this) (both supported by NRDC), I am so glad that someone is now calling out national environmental groups for similar sell outs.

That much needed criticism could not have come from a more credible source or at a better time – Dr. James Hansen, world renown global warming scientist.

Today, in an effort to pierce the mounting propaganda war in the run up to the global warming treaty negotiations in Copenhagen, world renown atmospheric scientist Jim Hansen broke new ground by calling out both the Bank of America (for financing coal power) AND the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for supporting fatally flawed “cap and trade” legislation.

I know I was livid when I learned that NRDC supports “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), when NJ Activists are fighting to block a massive $5 billion coal plant called “PurGen” planned for Linden, NJ. That CCS plant would pipe CO2 70 miles out and “store” it 1 and 1/2 miles deep under the ocean.Recently, I wrote:

Why are national “environmental group” supporting new coal power plants and so called “clean coal technology”? (link)

I refer to Senate testimony yesterday by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in support of the so called “clean coal technology” incentives in the Kerry Senate global warming bill:

Here’s the testimony of NRDC:

I was even angrier at NRDC when I learned that they had done an end run around Copenhagen global negotiations and worked with China on a bilateral US – China coal and CCS deal.

Scientist Jim Hansen speaks to crowd in front of Bank of America – 5th Avenue and 15th Street, NYC.

On the 10th anniversary of the “Battle of Seatle” protests against the WTO, Hansen joined Climate Justice activists in New York as part of a nationwide mobilization and explained why the world is at a critical juncture that requires mandatory steep cuts in emissions, not the flawed market based cap and trade approach of the pending Waxman-Markey and Kerry -Boxer bills. (see this YouTube “The Huge Mistake” for explanation of flaws in cap/trade). Hansen said:

“Cap and trade with offsets would guarantee that we pass climate tipping points, locking in climate disasters for our children. Cap and trade benefits only Wall Street and polluters, sacrificing humanity and nature for their profits.”

Dr. James Hansen, one of the world’s leading global warming scientists. It is impossible to overstate the courage and integrity of this man

Hansen has joined AL Gore and called for civil disobedience to stop mountaintop mining, block construction of new coal power plants, and force the shut down of existing plants.

Let’s hope that Hansen’s groundbreaking truth telling move to call out big national environmental groups is a game changer.

And let’s hope that the media pierces the spin machine in the run up to Copenhagen and critically scrutinizes government claims. Thus far, it seems like there are major efforts underway, including those by the Obama administration, to spin failure as a success.

Check out photo’s from today’s NYC protest event below:

Hansen joined activists to oppose the so called “cap and trade” approach

Hansen joined activists to oppose the so called “cap and trade” approach

NRDC came in for harsh criticism

carbon capture and storage was called a sham

bankers in top hats hope to see cap and trade the next speculative bubble

NRDC was harshly criticized

Charles Komanoff, environmental economist and founder of the Carbon Tax Center stressed the need for the price of emissions to match their true costs. He urged the need for a policy based on scientific truth, social justice, and democracy.

Police had the protesters surrounded at all times

Tim Keating, Rainforest Relief, objects to police blockage of access to NRDC building

In the lobby of NRDC building – NYC police block access to NRDC offices (that’s me in the orange hat!) Source: NYC Independent media story above – all other photo’s are mine