Washington – NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says that while global warming is changing Earth’s climate, he’s not convinced that that is “a problem we must wrestle with.”
The NASA chief – whose agency has come under fire in Congress for cutting several programs designed to monitor climate change – also says it’s “rather arrogant” for people to take the position that today’s climate is the optimal one.
“I guess I would ask which human beings – where and when – are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now, is the best climate for all other human beings,” he said during a National Public Radio interview Thursday morning.
Griffin’s comments come on the same day President Bush called for a summit to address global warming and just months after the pre-eminent international organization on climate change issued a series of reports concluding that global warming will have serious consequences for life on Earth.
He quickly came under sharp attack from leading climate researchers and legislators.
James Hansen, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s top official on climate change, said, “It was a shocking statement because of the level of ignorance it indicated with regard to the current situation. He seemed unaware that 170 nations agreed that climate change is a serious problem with enormous repercussions, and that many people will suffer if it is not addressed.”
Hansen said Griffin’s comments help explain why NASA’s Earth-science budget has been severely cut.
In Congress, House Science and Technology Committee chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., said, “Setting aside NASA Administrator Griffin’s personal views on the significance of global warming, I remain concerned that NASA is not doing as much as needs to be done on climate-change data collection and research.”
White House science adviser Jack Marburger distanced the Bush administration from the outspoken Griffin.
