Quotes by James Hansen

About James Hansen:

James Edward Hansen is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Hansen is best known for his research in the field of climatology, his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in 1988 that helped raise broad awareness of global warming, and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change. In recent years, Hansen has become a climate activist for action to mitigate the effects of climate change, which on a few occasions has led to his arrest.
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Scientists will say we can't blame global warming for any single event. In a sense that's right, but the fact that the frequency and intensity of these events is increasing you can blame on global warming.

James Hansen

Adding CO2 to the air is like throwing another blanket on the bed.

James Hansen

I tend to be naive and gullible, I guess, but I try to believe that governments believe what they say.

James Hansen

As species are exterminated by shifting climate zones, ecosystems can collapse, destroying more species.

James Hansen

Coal is responsible for as much atmospheric carbon dioxide as other fossil fuels combined and it still has far greater reserves. We must stop using it.

James Hansen

On a per capita basis, Britain is responsible for more of the carbon dioxide now in the atmosphere than any other nation on Earth because it has been burning it from the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

James Hansen

What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash.

James Hansen

It's as certain that as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, we will just keep burning them.

James Hansen

Because cap and trade is enforced through the selling and trading of permits, it actually perpetuates the pollution it is supposed to eliminate.

James Hansen

The five warmest years over the last century occurred in the last eight years.

James Hansen

The United States did not sign Kyoto, yet its emissions are not that different from the countries that did sign it.

James Hansen

Some Democrats deserve to be criticized.

James Hansen

Talking nice about sun and wind and green jobs is just greenwash.

James Hansen

Until the public demands otherwise, the policy makers will continue to serve their financiers.

James Hansen

The fact is fossil fuel carbon will stay in the surface climate system for millennia.

James Hansen

Tipping points are so dangerous because if you pass them, the climate is out of humanity's control: if an ice sheet disintegrates and starts to slide into the ocean there's nothing we can do about that.

James Hansen

I was lucky to grow up at a time when it was not difficult for the child of a tenant farmer to make his way to the state university.

James Hansen

The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes.

James Hansen

Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.

James Hansen

With a fourth generation of nuclear power, you can have a technology that will burn more than 99 percent of the energy in the fuel. It would mean that you don't need to mine uranium for the next thousand years.

James Hansen

What has become clear from the science is that we cannot burn all of the fossil fuels without creating a very different planet.

James Hansen

Author Bio

  • NameJames Hansen
  • DescriptionAmerican physicist
  • BornMarch 29, 1941
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhysicist
  • AwardsSophie Prize; Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal; AAAS Award For Scientific Freedom And Responsibility