We need to send a message to Congress and the president that we want them to take the actions that are needed to preserve climate for young people and future generations and all life on the planet.
James HansenRead
...99 percent confident that the world really was getting warmer and that there was a high degree of probability that it was due to human-made greenhouse gases.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a strong belief in the reality of climate change and its human causes.
James Hansen's quote underscores the significant confidence he has in the scientific consensus surrounding climate change, specifically attributing it to human activities that produce greenhouse gases. He emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this reality to motivate action against climate change and its consequences.
Themes
Climate ChangeGreenhouse GasesScienceEnvironmentGlobal Warming
In practice
Example use cases
In a conference on climate action, I would quote Hansen to emphasize the urgent need for sustainability measures.
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Rising carbon price is essential to 'decarbonize' the economy - to remove the nation towards the era beyond fossil fuels.
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We have at most ten years - not ten years to decide upon action, but ten years to alter fundamentally the trajectory of global greenhouse emissions... We are near a tipping point, a point of no return, beyond which the built in momentum and feedbacks will carry us to levels of climate change with staggering consequences for humanity and all of the residents of this planet.
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'Goals' and 'caps' on carbon emissions are practically worthless, if coal emissions continue, because of the exceedingly long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the air.
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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.
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