Is PM Kevin Rudd another James Hansen Disciple?

If you still have doubts about whether man made climate change is real, stop it because according to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd:

We
must prepare for a low-carbon economy, to delay any longer, to stay in
denial as the climate change skeptics and some members opposite would
have us do, is reckless and irresponsible.

The Prime
Minister made that statement in an unexpected and impassioned speech
yesterday near the end of a long parliamentary debate on a government
bill that clears the way for millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to be
stored under the sea. Throughout the speech Rudd emphasized the need
for URGENT action:

Expert analysis points to severe
global and national consequences including rising sea levels, more
severe weather events, water shortages, large-scale migration,
increased threats to border security, loss of infrastructure and
regional conflict over increasingly scarce resources.

He finished up with the following emotional call to action (more about this later):

"For our generation, for our kids and future generations, we must act now."

The
Prime Minister has continually maintained that he takes his advice from
the IPCC science on this matter. But who are these expert analysts?
From the Prime Minister's agenda and language it would appear that his
adviser on the science is none other than James Hansen. Hansen is the
father of the Global warming alarmist movement since the 1980's and
just happens to be AlGore's science adviser.

A personal letter
written from James Hansen written to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the
27th of March 2008 is most revealing. You can click through and read
the letter in full at the Crikey web site, but here are some extract
that show Rudd parroting what Hansen has written: In the letter Hansen
urges Rudd to act - just notice how he plays to Rudd's ego and his
ambition to be a major player on the world stage. Hansen lays it on
with a trowel.

I recognize that for years you have been
a strong supporter of aggressive forward-looking actions to mitigate
dangerous climate change. Also, since your election as Prime Minister
of Australia, your government has been active in pressing the
international community to take appropriate actions. We are now at a
point that bold leadership is needed, leadership that could change the
course of human history.

Hansen then goes on to say the situation is URGENT, NEAR critical tipping points and then spells out what COULD happen:

"Global
climate is near critical tipping points that could lead to ..
progressive, unstoppable global sea level rise, shifting of climatic
zones with extermination of many animal and plant species, reduction of
freshwater supplies for hundreds of millions of people, and a more
intense hydrologic cycle with stronger droughts and forest fires, but
also heavier rains and floods, and stronger storms driven by latent
heat, including tropical storms, tornados and thunderstorms.

Funny
that's exactly what Rudd has been telling the Australian Public, almost
word for word. Then Hansen goes on to chronicle the dangers of coal and
recommend the development of the very thing that Rudd unexpectantly
spoke so passionately about in Parliament yesterday, carbon capture. -

"Due
to the dominant role of coal, solution to global warming must include
phase-out of coal except for uses where the CO2 is captured and
sequestered. Yet there are plans for continuing mining of coal, export
of coal, and construction of new coal-fired power plants around the
world, including in Australia, plants that would have a lifetime of
half a century or more."

Then Hansen lays it on with a trowel again. Note the word COULD

Your
leadership in halting these plans COULD seed a transition that is
needed to solve the global warming problem. If Australia halted
construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and
sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is
still time to find that tipping point, but just barely. I hope that you
will give these considerations your attention in setting your national
policies. You have the potential to influence the future of the planet.

Prime
Minister Rudd, we cannot avert our eyes from the basic fossil fuel
facts, or the consequences for life on our planet of ignoring these
fossil fuel facts. If we continue to build coal-fired power plants
without carbon capture, we will lock in future climate disasters
associated with passing climate tipping points. We must solve the coal
problem now.

To finish, Hansen recommends 7 Australian
scientist who are his disciples.... Oh don't forget the references to
the little children. Hansen said:

Prospects for today's children, and especially the world's poor, hinge upon our success in stabilizing climate.

Or here from Hansen's report on his lobbying trips to the UK, Germany & Japan in July

If
we continue to ignore obvious geophysical facts about the magnitude of
fossil fuel reservoirs, our children and grandchildren will have little
reason to forgive our obtuseness.

Kevin Rudd in Parliament yesterday:

"For our generation, for our kids and future generations, we must act now."

Or Here from his appearance on 60 minutes.

Look
at your kids in the eye tonight and ask yourself this question - "If we
have this much evidence available to us now "on climate change and just
refuse to act, "then what are the consequences for them?"

It's
comforting to know that an American NASA professor who cannot convince
his own government to sign the Kyoto protocol is driving Australia to
leading the world into a carbon constrained future. It appears that on
the advice of a one US professor Kevin Rudd is about to launch
Australia into the greatest shake up of our economy the nation has ever
seen. By the time the Kevin Rudd / James Hansen agenda is in place we
will be poorer as a nation, but at least we'll be cleaner.

Oh
sorry I forgot because we only represent 1.3% of world CO2 emissions,
cutting our Greenhouse gas emission will actually have zero impact on
world emissions. But its important to be seen on the world stage as a
visionary leader and savior of the planet, when you spend as much time
overseas as Kevin Rudd does. Isn't it Kevin?

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