...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
We are on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns that we are nearing critical environmental thresholds that could lead to irreversible climate damage.
James Hansen emphasizes the urgency and critical nature of our current environmental situation, suggesting that we are approaching points of no return in the climate system. These tipping points, if crossed, could lead to catastrophic changes, making it impossible for us to restore the climate to a previous state, thus stressing the need for immediate action to mitigate climate change.
Themes
ClimateTipping PointsEnvironmentSustainabilityUrgentRedemption
In practice
Example use cases
In a conference about environmental policy to illustrate the urgency of climate action.
More from James Hansen
All quotes βWe 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.
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Coral reefs, the rain forest of the ocean, are home for one-third of the species of the sea. Coral reefs are under stress for several reasons, including warming of the ocean, but especially because of ocean acidification, a direct effect of added carbon dioxide. Ocean life dependent on carbonate shells and skeletons is threatened by dissolution as the ocean becomes more acid.
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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.
James HansenRead
'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.
James HansenRead
Similar quotes
We are in grave danger of losing forever not just millions of years of evolution on earth, but the eons of change that have produced man and his natural environment.
Charles LindberghRead
I've travelled all around the world to see the rivers and the mountains, and I've spent a lot of money. I have gone to great lengths, I have seen everything, but I forgot to see just outside my house a dewdrop on a little blade of grass, a dewdrop which reflects in its convexity the whole universe around you.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
Most Africans don't get to see these wild animals at all. Once they see and learn about them, they are much more likely to become involved in protecting the environment.
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When they turned off, it was still early in the pink and green fields. The fumes of morning, sweet and bitter, sprang up where they walked. The insects ticked softly, their strength in reserve; butterflies chopped the air, going to the east, and the birds flew carelessly and sang by fits and starts, not the way they did in the evening in sustained and drowsy songs.
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The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.
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Twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much, or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse. No more can it be dismissed as science fiction; we are already feeling the effects.
Desmond TutuRead