...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.
James HansenRead
If your child gets asthma, the fossil fuel industry doesn't pay. Or if there's a natural disaster, the bill is paid by the taxpayer, not the fossil fuel company.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fossil fuel companies do not bear the costs of the environmental damage they cause, which affects society and taxpayers instead.
James Hansen's quote highlights the disconnect between the fossil fuel industry's contributions to environmental harm and the responsibility for the consequences of that harm. When children suffer from asthma or communities face natural disasters due to climate change, it is the taxpayers who ultimately bear these costs, not the corporations responsible for creating the pollution and climate risk.
Themes
Fossil FuelsAsthmaTaxpayerNatural DisasterEnvironmentPollution
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on climate change at a school, you can use this quote to illustrate the broader societal impacts of fossil fuel pollution.
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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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