A biography for James Hansenhasn’t been written yet.
“Until the public demands otherwise, the policy makers will continue to serve their financiers.”
“Jail threats did not dissuade Martin Luther King - and intergenerational justice is a moral issue of comparable magnitude to civil rights.”
“The United States did not sign Kyoto, yet its emissions are not that different from the countries that did sign it.”
“Some Democrats deserve to be criticized.”
“I tend to be naive and gullible, I guess, but I try to believe that governments believe what they say.”
“Recent warming coincides with rapid growth of human-made greenhouse gases. The observed rapid warming gives urgency to discussions about how to slow greenhouse gas emissions.”
“The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes.”
“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.”
“As species are exterminated by shifting climate zones, ecosystems can collapse, destroying more species.”
“Talking nice about sun and wind and green jobs is just greenwash.”
“Consider the perverse effect cap and trade has on altruistic actions. Say you decide to buy a small, high-efficiency car. That reduces your emissions, but not your country's. Instead it allows somebody else to buy a bigger S.U.V. - because the total emissions are set by the cap.”
“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.”
“Because cap and trade is enforced through the selling and trading of permits, it actually perpetuates the pollution it is supposed to eliminate.”
“We have known since the 1800s that carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere. The right amount keeps the climate conducive to human life.”
“Global warming isn't a prediction. It is happening.”
“I have been described as the grandfather of climate change. In fact, I am just a grandfather and I do not want my grandchildren to say that grandpa understood what was happening but didn't make it clear.”
“It's as certain that as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, we will just keep burning them.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”