Stephan:   This is polemic, I freely acknowledge it, but the essay is factually accurate, and it is coming from the leading American government scientist on climate. I feel particularly sorry for those red state societies, where climate denierism is at the highest. As Hansen points out they are going to be especially impacted; it is going to wreck the lives of tens of thousands of families in those states. But with their Republican -- and yes, denierism is an overwhelmingly a Republican position -- blocking any meaningfully action those families have no one but themselves to blame. It you vote for fools you get foolish policy. James Hansen is the Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.