Green Daily

NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen, who was one of the first people to put the concept "global warming" into the public record when he testified in front of the Senate about it twenty years ago, has written an (inflammatory or courageous, depending on your POV) op-ed in which he calls for the heads of major fossil-fuel companies to be put on trial for lying to the public about the effects of their products.

Hansen spoke in front of the Worldwatch Institute in Washington on Monday, arguing that special interests (oil companies) have blocked movement into renewable energy production by publicizing doubts about climate change and its effects, funding research which obfuscates the problem, and even lobbying to expunge parts of children's textbooks which address the issue.

Hansen's op-ed, which is mainly terrifying to read, holds out hope that if the new President charts a definitive course in his first year of office, he could just barely hold the climate from reaching a disastrous tipping point. So vote carefully.

Via the Huffington Post