Christian Leftist

Michael Griffin stands out from your average chief of a program that relies on federal funding: he agreed to an interview on National Public Radio and spoke frankly when asked his opinion, which is more than one can ask of so many CEOs, CFOs, political appointees or representatives. That act in itself is commendable. Now comes the time when we cringe at exactly what those opinions are.

Here is an excerpt of his responses from an ABC news article on the implications:

“I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists,” Griffin told Inskeep. “I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.

“To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change,” Griffin said. “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. I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.”

You might remember the brouhaha last year over an elimination of the words “to understand and protect our home planet” from the NASA mission statement, or you might not.

Or perhaps the saga of the 2005 attempt to silence James Hansen, NASA’s senior climate scientist who works at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, slipped past your attention. Two years ago, Hansen warned the public that the earth was approaching a “tipping point” on global warming. The Bush appointee who had censured Hansen lost his job when word leaked out, but that result only came after national exposure of his incompetency.

These quiet uproars are the sort of AP briefs that fail to capture the attention of the major TV news networks. It is difficult to remember to save and document every incident of a political coup when it advances in inches, not feet, over the span of four decades.

Micheal Griffin doesn’t appear to be in danger of losing his job, yet. This raises the issue of what – or who – the word ’scientist’ represents.