Climate change cover-up

A New York Times article reports that climate scientist, James E. Hansen, refuses to be hushed up over recent findings on global warming.

Why is the government and NASA going to all this trouble to cover up facts about global warming? (And if its not about trying to keep info from getting out why all the denials of statements etc.?) So 2005 is the hottest year on record - is NASA the only organization with that information?

I just don't understand why the U.S. government puts so much effort towards disproving, denying, or ignoring climate change. At this point it doesn't really matter what specifically caused the presence of all this CO2 in our atmosphere - whether it was us or plants or whatever other studies are still trying to battle out the 'truth'. We know humans are putting a lot of CO2 out there, so why not just start reducing it and working towards adapting to a future with an increasing warmer climate instead of pretending it isn't happening.

Do we really need to wait for a White House directive to begin to reduce CO2 emissions? Does the U.S. have to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol for the country to take action? What about the mayors in cities across the U.S. who want to do their part to reduce emissions? Individual states can also take the lead without G.W.'s support and begin to set a higher bar for pollution standards (California anyone?) Big companies like 3M and DuPont didn't wait for regulation to voluntarily cut their emissions (and are profitable despite doing so) maybe they can get others to do the same.

What data will have to be released that will get the attention of those in the White House and their powerful anti-climate change lobbyists? Maybe Hansen knows.