Part IV of EnviroWonk writer Samantha's Hulkower's day at the National Integrity in Science Conference in D.C. last week. Check out her previous posts on the big event here, here and here.

After starting the day with two panels on weighty topics, we were looking forward to lunch -- not just because of free food, but because our brains needed a break from the horrible truth of reality.

But we could hardly be disappointed by the speech given by NASA scientist Jim Hansen, because this guy was speaking out about climate change - political appointees be damned! - since before it was cool.

Hansen laid to waste most of the skeptics arguments, and said that the only real knowledge gap regarding climate science is "between what the scientists know and what the policy makers understand." That's right politicians, he's calling you dumb.

Hansen's sees two main hurdles to sound climate policy:

• fossil fuel interests
• young people, who will actually be alive when things get really bad, and animals don't (generally) vote

He did mention some solutions that echoed President Bush's opinion: the free market, not the government, should pick the winners and losers in terms of what technology and solutions will transition us away from fossil fuels. Hmmm, are politicians listening to scientists already?

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