I would like to start a collection of little-known whistle-blowers. So if anyone reading these blogs reads or hears of one, please email me, or send the information in a comment to the blog, which is at the end of each blog entry. I have a small collection for your inspiration, and will share these with you periodically, starting with a name unknown to almost everyone - James Hansen - a NASA scientist. Jim deserves  recognition for his bravery in risking his job to stand up for the truth against the bullying, incompetent, anti-science, pro-business polluters/anti-envrionment Bush Administration - in short, he went public with the "inconvenient truth".

Jim directs NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Jim and his team, were researching the physics of climate change, when Jim became the first leading scientist to testify to congress in June 1988 about global warming. His forecasts proved to be accurate over the next two decades, and put him on a collision course with the anti-science, anti-environment White House. According to a report in the October 29, 2007 issue of Time, Hansen, in the full knowledge that his job might be at risk, spoke out, claiming that White House "junior lackeys with no scientific training tried to muzzle him in 2005". According to Time, "he bravely and successfully defended his freedom to speak out. The simple truth, inconvenient as it was for the Administration, is that Hansen had the science firmly on his side."

Hansen is highly concerned now about the acceleration of climate changes, and the melting of the ice caps, which will hasten warming, leading to massive rises in the sea level. He is urging a swift and concerted shift to a sustainable economy.

For those of you who have been unable to find the photos I referred to in my article on Vietnam, you have to go to the right side of the page, and go to page 2, where you will see a link for "my profile". click on that, and then click on photos. Unfortunately, I tried to reduce them in size so that I could get plenty on, but it was so excruciatingly time consuming, that I suspended my efforts temporarily.