Sherwood Park, Alta.— Globe and Mail Update

One of NASA's top scientists has told a review panel considering a new oil sands mine that the resource should simply be left in the ground.

James Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies says allowing new developments such as Total's $9-billion Joslyn mine would make it too hard to keep climate change impacts manageable.

Mr. Hansen says even using the rest of the earth's conventional oil will cause problems, and adding oil sands crude and new coal supplies to the mix would be too dangerous.

Mr. Hansen says he no longer believes governments have the will or the independence to scale back the fossil fuel industry and says legal action is the best route environmentalists have.

He says forging ahead with new fossil-fuel developments foists the costs of that development on future generations.