...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
The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the urgent need to reduce fossil fuel emissions to prevent irreversible climate change effects.
James Hansen highlights the critical state of our climate, warning that we are approaching tipping points where changes could lead to catastrophic and permanent impacts on our environment. He stresses the importance of taking immediate and significant action to decrease fossil fuel emissions over the coming decades to avert these dire consequences.
Themes
ClimateEnvironmentFossil FuelsEmissionsTipping PointChangeIrreversibleSustainability
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during sustainability workshops to stress the urgency of reducing emissions.
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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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