Teenager Takes on Global Warming Scientist

James Hansen, a scientist who was consulted in the making of Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is finding his evidence about global warming being disputed by 15-year-old Kristen Byrnes from Portland, Maine.

According to a report from NewsBusters, Byrnes is known for her work in calling into question many of the assertions in An Inconvenient Truth.

In her report, "Houston, We Have a Problem," Byrnes raises some fundamental questions about the objectivity and scientific methods of Hansen.

First, his objectivity. Hansen, the top climate scientist with NASA and located at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, was, according to Byrnes, awarded $250,000 from the Heinz Foundation, the foundation of the wife of former presidential candidate John Kerry. Byrnes, quoted by NewsBusters, asks, "What did he do to get the quarter of a million dollars? Was it the price for switching his political standing from 'independent' to democratic when he later endorsed John Kerry for President?" Byrnes finds the situation to be suspicious. Earlier, in 2000, Hansen endorsed Al Gore for President.

Byrnes is also concerned about Hansen's rationalization for the use of exaggerations, or what some call lies, in order to get the public to take global warming seriously. "Now," he says, according to Byrnes, quoted in NewsBusters, "The need is for demonstrably objective climate forcing scenarios consistent with what is realistic under current conditions." To read between the lines, if "objective" and "realistic" scenarios are needed now, what was being done earlier in Hansen's work and pronouncements?

Going further, Byrnes says there is a huge problem with the temperature stations that Hansen has used to support his claims of global warming. Pointing to the controversy over where the stations should be located-in big cities with their "heat island effects" or rural. breezy areas-Byrnes notes that a check of some of the temperature stations revealed that many of them were located, according to the NewsBusters report, "Next to concrete buildings, near hot exhausts of air conditioning units, attached to metal towers and poles, surrounded by driveways and above gravel."

Byrnes summarizes her findings with regard to the temperature stations: "About 80% of the temperature stations that have been visited and photographed have serious quality problems." In one instance, a temperature station was located just five feet from a metal barrel where trash was regularly burned. A photograph of the barrel and the temperature station is shown on the NewsBusters website.

Sources:

News Busters, 15-Year-Old Byrnes Outsmarts NASA's Global Warming Alarmist James Hansen, newsbusters.org/node/13282

Free Republic, 15-Year-Old Byrnes Outsmarts NASA's Global Warming, www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1846743/posts

For Hansen's response to those who downplay global warming, see:

ABC, Scientists Surprised by NASA Chief's Climate Comments, www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/story