Dr. James Hansen: the Requirements to Avoid Dangerous Climate Change

Monday, 30 April 2012, 16:15

ETH Zentrum, HG F30, Auditorium Maximum

Dr. James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and winner of the Blue Planet Prize in 2010, spoke about "the Requirements to Avoid Dangerous Climate Change".

Watch online!

Movie on the ETH Zurich multimedia portal

Abstract

Humans are now the dominant force driving global climate. The inertia of the ocean and ice sheets causes much of the human-caused climate change to be pent up, but substantial changes are already occurring and climate chaos is poised to be unleashed if climate tipping points are passed. Preservation of nature and the future of young people is still feasible—but it requires rapidly phasing down fossil fuel emissions to restore Earth's energy balance. If, rather than turning to clean energies, our well-oiled coal-fired governments and the fossil fuel industry continue to pursue every last dirty bit of fossil fuel in the ground, today's children, future generations, and nature will bear the consequences through no fault of their own. We adults must unite with young people in a campaign to force governments, through legal remedies and democratic processes, to do their job.

About Dr. James Hansen

Dr. James Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and is Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

Since the late 1970s, he has focused his research on Earth's climate, especially human-made climate change. Dr. Hansen is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and was designated by Time Magazine in 2006 as one of the 100 most influential people on Earth.

He has received numerous awards including the Carl-Gustaf Rossby and Roger Revelle Research Medals, the Sophie Prize and the Blue Planet Prize. Dr. Hansen is recognized for speaking truth to power, for identifying ineffectual policies as greenwash, and for outlining the actions that the public must take to protect the future of young people and the other species on the planet.