Will D.C. global warming protest be the end of NASA's climate chief?

March 1, 3:24 PMCleveland Weather ExaminerPaul Fuhr

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Dr. James Hansen continues to draw fire for global warming claims

Change is coming to Washington, D.C. tomorrow -- or, at least, more warnings of climate change. On March 2, D.C. will be the site of a snowstorm and the largest public protest of global warming in history. Irony aside, the protest might also help usher in the public unraveling of NASA’s chief climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen.

Hansen, best known for his alarming testimonies on climate change, has drawn fresh criticism from colleagues and lawmakers alike after endorsing tomorrow’s Capitol Climate Action protest. Calling for “mass civil disobedience,” the protest aims to draw attention to global warming and remove all coal-burning power plants from America.

In an article with FOXNews, one of Hansen’s former supervisors, Dr. John Theon, remarked of Hansen’s involvement: "Oh my goodness. I'm not surprised. The fact that Jim Hansen has gone off the deep end here is sad because he's a good fellow." Theon is well-known in the scientific community for questioning Hansen’s integrity, claiming that the man abused his position and violated NASA’s position on climate forecasting.

Hansen has also been the target of several notable global warming skeptics, including “Red Hot Lies” author Chris Horner: “He's providing ample cause to question his employment on the taxpayer dime,” Horner told FOXNews.com.

“He's clearly abused his platform provided to him by the taxpayer, principally by the way he’s been exposed of manipulating and revising data with the strange coincidence of him always found on the side of exaggerating the warming.”

Horner charges Hansen with falsifying critical temperature data in 2001 and 2007 to stoke public fears that dramatic climate change was coming. "He's creating an upward slope that really wasn't there,” Horner said. “At some point you have to say these aren't mistakes.”

Hansen, however, continues to win awards and accolades. Most recently, he was awarded the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, the American Meteorological Society’s highest honor. Hansen also toured with Al Gore when promoting Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth. Hansen’s involvement with tomorrow’s Capitol Climate Action protest entails giving a keynote speech.

Hansen maintains that “we need to send a message to Congress and the president that we want them to take the actions that are needed to preserve climate for young people and future generations and all life on the planet." Hansen equates coal-fired power plants to “factories of death” and argues that he was silenced by the Bush administration when he began to discuss global warming.

According to the Capitol Climate Action website, the protest will take place at the Capitol Power Plant: "The Capitol Power Plant, sitting just blocks from Capitol Hill, symbolizes the stranglehold coal has over our government and future. It’s not the largest or the dirtiest power plant in the country, but as the plant that is actually run by and for Congress it serves as an incredibly iconic symbol of what is wrong with our country’s energy and climate policy. From being outdated and inefficient, to burning dirty fossil fuels including coal, to having its clean-up blocked by politicians pandering to coal industry interests, we see this plant as the strategic target to address our concerns.”

The protest is being organized by over 90 groups, ranging from “international environmental organizations, grassroots climate justice groups, frontline communities most impacted by climate change and fossil fuels, [and] faith-based organizations.” Hansen’s involvement, however, continues to irk lawmakers and colleagues alike. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., has repeatedly called for Hansen to reconsider his involvement with the protest: "If he wants to have a demonstration concerning global warming, coming to the Capitol is not a right choice. The bottom line is if Hansen wants to protest global warming, he should go to the National Cathedral and take it up with God rather than going to Capitol Hill.”

Rohrabacher, a member of the House's Committee on Science and Technology, has also called for Hansen to “step out” of his role.

Will tomorrow’s protest prove to be Hansen’s undoing? With so many lawmakers calling motives and misrepresented data into question, Hansen's departure seems like a long time coming. The Capitol Climate Action protest makes clear Hansen’s inability to separate his position as a scientist and his role as a political activist. If nothing else, the protest might be a forced reflection of Hansen’s larger problem: his inability to distinguish fact from fiction, genuine alarm from lobbyist-driven agenda.