Canadian natural resources minister Joe Oliver took time on his visit to Washington, D.C. to lash out against anti-Keystone climatologist James Hansen, saying Hansen should be “ashamed” for opposing the pipeline and exaggerating the effects developing tar sands oil will have on global warming.
“He was the one who said four years ago that if we go ahead with development of the oil sands it’s game over for the planet,” Oliver told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Well, this is exaggerated rhetoric. It’s frankly nonsense. I don’t know why he said it but he should be ashamed of having said it.”
Hansen, a former NASA climatologist and environmental activist, gained notoriety after testifying before Congress 25 years ago on global warming. Earlier this year, Hansen was arrested along with other environmental activists during a protest of the Keystone Pipeline in front of the White House.
“We would have past the point where events would be burning out of control,” Hansen told the Oregonian when asked about where the world will be by 2100 on its current global warming trajectory.
“For example, the ice sheets would be disintegrating and sea level would be going up and the shoreline would no longer be stable. When you get a sea level rise of a few meters, most coastal cities may be partly underwater. Climate zones would be shifting so rapidly it would combine with other pressures we’re putting on species and drive extinctions in significant numbers. We really can’t go down that path. I’m quite sure and hopeful we will realize that. But we better do it soon because we’re running out of time,” Hansen told the Oregonian.
Oliver is known for taking down critics of Canadian tar sands oil, and the criticism of the recently retired NASA scientist comes just two days after the Environmental Protection Agency raised concerns that the pipeline will contribute to climate change and could harm the environment.
The EPA’s comments could further complicate the already controversial decision on the pipeline. If the EPA challenges the State Department’s national interest determination on the Keystone XL pipeline, then President Obama himself would be forced to make the decision on the pipeline.
However, Oliver says that the public is losing faith in climate science, and suggested Hansen was partly to blame.
“Crying wolf all the time does not advance serious debate,” Oliver said.
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