Prominent scientist James Hansen criticizes President Bush’s climate change policy, despite the fact that the policy is in part based on Hansen’s own findings.

This is unheard of: A prominent scientist in the pay of the federal government attacks the President in a crucial state (Iowa) one week before the election. Not just any prominent scientist, either, but James Hansen, recipient of $250,000 in pocket change from the Heinz Foundation, run by Mrs. John Kerry. Don’t worry, though, he said he was speaking as a private citizen because he paid his own way. With Mrs. Kerry’s money, we might add, in his family nest egg.
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Research on the long-term drought history of the western United States doesn’t jibe with research on the long-term temperature reconstructions of the same region. When two records disagree, something is amiss.
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Despite a slew of British press reports to the contrary, the data reveal no unnatural “jump” in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

The British press lit up this week with a story about an unprecedented, and surprising “jump” in the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. But a check of the data reveals nothing of the kind. Instead, recent fluctuations appear to be just part of natural variability.
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Will future hurricanes will be stronger in a greenhouse-gas warmed world? A new climate model says yes, but (as usual) the observations suggest otherwise.

With all the hurricane activity as of late—both in the Atlantic Ocean and in the U.S. media—we’re starting to hear rumblings conflating hurricanes and global warming. Renowned hurricane experts say that notion is unfounded, given actual observations.
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There’s new research in Science demonstrating the “hockey stick” reconstruction of earth’s temperature history over the last 1000 years suffers deficiencies that further undermine its reliability.

Why are so many researchers concerned with reconstructing a thousand years of Earth’s climate history? Some will argue it’s actually a political debate; to the winner goes the spoils — passage of or withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol by governments worldwide.
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