IBD weighs in today on astronomer James Hansen’s most recent foray into the alarmists’ specialty of calling for sanction of those who dare disagree with their prophesying. Nearly two years ago I dedicated an entire chapter to this totalitarian impulse in my book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism. It’s only gotten worse since.
Hansen now not only calls for show trials but for the unseating of duly-elected representatives of the people (this, coming from a government employee). The Washington Times editorializes that he could leave the safety of his non-appointed position and run for Congress if he really wants to boss people around, winking that of course he won’t because of a certain lack of nerve evident in his machinations.
What else to say about a government employee who demands a certain policy agenda, and when he finds that agenda thwarted by the popular assembly, sets out to get rid of the problem but through means not quite typical in our system of representative democracy. As my CEI colleague and fellow PGer Iain Murray notes, Charles I and Bertholt Brecht would both appreciate the suggestion.