NASA Honcho 'Spaces Out' On Climate Change

The Global Warming alarmists just won't give up. It's almost embarrassing to hear them continue to chirp their "canary in the coal mine" rantings. The latest bleat comes from the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times. NASA scientist James Hansen, who you think would have some semblance of professional pride, goes all 'Al Gore' on us. He suggests that, if our Canadian friends use their significant tar sands resources (an eminently rational action on their part, by the way), the long-term effects would be:

"...concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk."

But Hansen's not done scaring the pants off us. How about some short-term effects? OK, here you go:

"Over the next several decades, the Western United States and the semi-arid region from North Dakota to Texas will develop semi-permanent drought, with rain, when it does come, occurring in extreme events with heavy flooding. Economic losses would be incalculable. More and more of the Midwest would be a dust bowl. California’s Central Valley could no longer be irrigated. Food prices would rise to unprecedented levels."

Have these guys no shame?