He has something else in common with Al Gore, profiting off the “global warming” frenzy they’ve helped create.

(Daily Caller) — The American Tradition Institute’s (ATI) Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit Tuesday to force the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to make public ethics records for global warming activist and chief climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies James Hansen — to ensure that he did not use his public position for personal gain.

According to ATI, over the past four years Hansen has earned an estimated $1.2 million from outside opportunities.

ATI hopes to find out if NASA approved Hansen’s external endeavors and if his gain was a result of his “taxpayer-funded employment,” as he allegedly began making this money when he increased his amount of global warming advocacy — specifically in the years following a 2006 “60 Minutes” interview in which the climate scientist accused the Bush administration of “censoring” his warming views.

This is the second time this year the group has sought information of this kind from NASA. In January ATI attempted to obtain records dealing with NASA and Hansen’s compliance with financial disclosure and ethics laws. The agency rejected their request then, arguing that the disclosure was a “clearly unwarranted violation of Hansen’s privacy rights.”

NASA further said that ATI had failed to make “the requisite showing that the documents requested would contribute to the public’s understanding of the activities of the Government, or how it would shed light on NASA’s performance of its statutory duties.”