PRE-PUBLISHING UPDATE: After I wrote this but before I posted it, I got an email from Grist reader CD notifying me of the sad news that Mass.’s gov approved the coal gasification plant. Decisions like this are going to look awfully stupid in a few years.

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I meant to mention this last week, but better late than never: Kudos to climate scientist James Hansen, not only for being a public advocate against coal, but doing so in a targeted op-ed in the Boston Globe, geared to two decisions that the citizens of Mass. will be making soon.

Hansen has decided that it would be perverse to hoard the social capital that comes with being a prominent scientist in the U.S., standing by nervously guarding his credibility while the climate goes to shit. So he’s taking a big risk and spending some of that capital. I wish more people would make the same decision.

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