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Thursday, Dec 3, 2009 @06:37am CST

(London) -- A top NASA scientist who helped bring attention to the dangers of global warming has come out as a surprising critic of the upcoming international climate change summit in Copenhagen.

James Hansen says he'd rather see the talks fall apart completely than succeed.

Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

He tells the "Guardian" newspaper that any climate deal that arises from the summit would put the planet on a "disaster track." Hansen especially takes issue with a Danish draft proposal that aims to halve the world's greenhouse gas emissions in the next four decades.

Like President Obama's proposed cap-and-trade system, the Danish plan would require permits for pollution that could be bought and sold.

Hansen claims that kind of carbon market scheme is, quote, "so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation." Instead, Hansen favors a tax on energy use.

He also bashes Obama for failing to grasp what is really needed.

The international climate change summit convenes in Copenhagen next Monday.