Refuting James Hanson's Denial . . .

Alert: James Hansen Responds to John Theon! - Theon Fires back - Decries Smears on Skeptics
Retired NASA Atmospheric Scientist Dr. John S. Theon’s Response to James Hansen’s Reported Comments – February 5, 2009
NASA’s James Hansen reportedly responded to comments made by retired NASA Atmospheric Scientist Dr. John S. Theon’s . Theon, one of Hansen’s former supervisors, declared himself a skeptic and said Hansen had “embarrassed NASA.” See: “James Hansen’s Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic: Says Hansen ‘Embarrassed NASA’ & ‘Was Never Muzzled’ – January 27, 2009 - http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?
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Hansen’s reportedly responded to Theon via email to M.J. Murphy of BigCityLib blog and wrote the following on February 5, 2009:
Hansen wrote: John Theon never had any supervisory authority over me. I remember that he was in the bureaucracy at NASA Headquarters, but I cannot recall having any interactions with him. His claim of association is misleading, to say the least. What he can legitimately say is that he had a reasonably high position in the Headquarters bureaucracy. A job in that bureaucracy is not considered to be a plum, so we should probably be grateful that somebody is willing to do it, and I don't particularly want to kick the fellow around. You should investigate his scientific contributions to evaluate the degree to which his opinions might be listened to. Of course you are free to quote me. - Jim Hansen - End Hansen Email

Theon fired back at Hansen. “It is absurd that Hansen denies ever meeting me. We have met on numerous occasions. This just demonstrates that Hansen has a poor memory,” Theon wrote on February 5, 2009. [Note: Theon’s complete email response is reprinted below] “I worked with Hansen from about 1983 to 1994 during which time he was at GISS in NYC and I was at NASA HQ in Washington DC. I retired from NASA in 1995. I had completed 37 and 1/2 years of federal service (civilian Navy, USAF, and including 33 years with NASA.)
The money came through me. We were in the Earth Observations Program which later became the Mission to Planet Earth Program. I visited GISS at least once a year to review and evaluate the GISS work. When I visited NYC, to review the research that GISS was funded to do out of the program for which I was responsible, Hansen was most cordial. When I asked him to give a lecture in Japan, he complied,” Theon wrote.
“It was what it was, and no amount of denial will change that,” Theon explained. “I repeat what I wrote to you in January: “I was, in effect, Hansen's supervisor because I had to justify his funding, allocate his resources, and evaluate his results. I did not have the authority to give him his annual performance evaluation,” he added.
Theon also noted the attacks on him by many of the websites devoted to smearing anyone who questions claims of a man-made climate catastrophe.
“Regarding some of the other attacks that have been aimed at me: I am truly appalled at the backbiting, vitriol that is sent by people who have nothing better to do than try to smear other people's reputations because they do not agree with their own thinking. To them, I recommend that they get a life,” Theon concluded.
Retired NASA Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Roy Spencer weighed in on Hansen and Theon controversy on January 29, 2009:
“And now my old boss when I was at NASA (as well as James Hansen’s old boss), John Theon, has stated very clearly that he doesn’t believe global warming is man-made…and adding ‘climate models are useless’ for good measure.” See: http://www.drroyspencer.com/2009/01/another-nasa-defection-to-the-skeptics-camp/
Even websites devoted to smearing and attacking scientists skeptical of anthropogenic climate fears are finding the attacks on Theon way over the line. At the Deltoid blog -- no friend of climate skeptics -- several readers are lamenting the disparaging remarks against Theon. Some of its readers are now essentially screaming “Enough” in response to the attacks on Theon.
A January 31 comment on Deltoid blog stated: “Theon did some serious work (about 30 papers, some edited books, plus lots of monographs), including a couple of Science papers in the 60’s, so he wasn’t puffing up his accomplishments like some, and an h-index of 6.” Again, these comments are coming from a website devoted to vilifying global warming skeptics.
A February 1 comment on Detloid stated: “This attempt to smear Theon is terribly, terribly thin.”
Here is a Google scholar search on Theon: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q="author:JS+author:Theon"
[Morano Note: The question that needs to be answred by those who attack Theon is:
Would you be so quick to slam Theon if he came out and praised Hansen? All of the voices seeking to discredit Theon’s career and reputation would have remained completely silent if Theon had instead praised Hansen and asserted that mankind faced a “climate crisis.” For more information on how scientists skeptical of man-made global warming fears are treated see: 1) A July 2007 Senate report details how skeptics have faced threats and intimidation - http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?
FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=04373015-802A-23AD-4BF9-
C3F02278F4CF - 2) Climate Skeptics Reveal ‘Horror Stories’ of Scientific Suppression –
March 6, 2008 - http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?
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EE9098538277 ]
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Theon’s Complete Response to Hansen: (Retired NASA Atmospheric Scientist Dr. John S. Theon’s Response to James Hansen’s Reported Comments – February 5, 2009 ) Via Email:
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jtheon [mailto:jtheon@XXXXXX]
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 2:01 PM
To: Morano, Marc (EPW)
Subject: Response to Jim Hansen's e-mail
Marc,
It is absurd that Hansen denies ever meeting me. We have met on numerous occasions. This just demonstrates that Hansen has a poor memory. I worked with Hansen from about 1983 to 1994 during which time he was at GISS in NYC and I was at NASA HQ in Washington DC. I retired from NASA in 1995. I had completed 37 and 1/2 years of federal service (civilian Navy, USAF, and including 33 years with NASA.)
The money came through me. We were in the Earth Observations Program which later became the Mission to Planet Earth Program. I visited GISS at least once a year to review and evaluate the GISS work. When I visited NYC, to review the research that GISS was funded to do out of the program for which I was responsible, Hansen was most cordial. When I asked him to give a lecture in Japan, he complied.
It was what it was, and no amount of denial will change that.
I repeat what I wrote to you in January: “I was, in effect, Hansen's supervisor because I had to justify his funding, allocate his resources, and evaluate his results. I did not have the authority to give him his annual performance evaluation.”
Regarding some of the other attacks that have been aimed at me: I am truly appalled at the backbiting, vitriol that is sent by people who have nothing better to do than try to smear other people's reputations because they do not agree with their own thinking. To them, I recommend that they get a life.
John
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End Correspondence from Dr. Theon.
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(See: James Hansen’s Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic: Says Hansen
‘Embarrassed NASA’ & ‘Was Never Muzzled’ – January 27, 2009 -
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?
FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=1a5e6e32-802a-23ad-40edecd53cd3d320&
Issue_id= )
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Marc Morano
Communications Director
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Inhofe Staff

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