James Hansen Quotes

Quotes about:

• The climate dice are now loaded. Some seasons still will be cooler than the long-term average, but the perceptive person should notice that the frequency of unusually warm extremes is increasing. It is the extremes that have the most impact on people and other life on the planet.

  James Hansen

  Impact, Average, Long

  52 Copy quote

• Imagine a giant asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth. That is the equivalent of what we face now with climate change, yet we dither.

  James Hansen

  Motivation, Inspiration, Earth

  "James Hansen: What Makes A Scientist Take A Stand?". Interview with Guy Raz, www.npr.org. April 7, 2017.

  33 Copy quote

• If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO₂ will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm [parts per million] to at most 350 ppm... If the present overshoot of this target CO₂ is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects.

  James Hansen

  Humanity, Wish, Environmental

  27 Copy quote

• We are on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption.

  James Hansen

  Climate, Redemption, Tipping

  28 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Hansen

  Years, Decide Upon, Action

  15 Copy quote

• Global warming has already triggered a sea level rise that could reach from 6 metres (19.69 ft) to 25 metres (27.34 yards).

  James Hansen

  Sea, Environmental, Yards

  23 Copy quote

• It would be immoral to leave young people with a climate system spiraling out of control.

  James Hansen

  Inspirational, Motivational, People

  26 Copy quote

• What we are doing to the future of our children, and the other species on the planet, is a clear moral issue.

  James Hansen

  Children, Issues, Moral

  "James Hansen on the Tar Sands Pipeline Protest, the Obama Administration and Intergenerational Justice". Interview with Jerry Cope, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 21, 2011.

  19 Copy quote

• How long have we got? We have to stabilize emissions of carbon dioxide within a decade, or temperatures will warm by more than one degree... We don't have much time left.

  James Hansen

  Long, Degrees, Temperature

  20 Copy quote

• Politicians think that if matters look difficult, compromise is a good approach. Unfortunately, nature and the laws of physics cannot compromise - they are what they are.

  James Hansen

  Thinking, Law, Looks

  James Hansen (2011). “Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity”, p.6, A&C Black

  13 Copy quote

• Planet Earth, creation, the world in which civilization developed, the world with climate patterns that we know and stable shorelines, is in imminent peril.

  James Hansen

  Civilization, Climate, World

  James Hansen (2011). “Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity”, p.4, A&C Black

  14 Copy quote

• Global warming isn't a prediction. It is happening.

  James Hansen

  Global Warming, Climate Change, Predictions

  "Game Over for the Climate". www.nytimes.com. May 9, 2012.

  10 Copy quote

• There is still time to act and avoid a worsening climate but we are wasting precious time.

  James Hansen

  Climate, Precious Time, Stills

  "Here comes the sun: chilling verdict on a climate going to extremes" by By James Hansen, www.theage.com.au. August 7, 2012.

  11 Copy quote

• Only in the last few years did the science crystallize, revealing the urgency - our planet really is in peril. If we do not change course soon, we will hand our children a situation that is out of their control.

  James Hansen

  Children, Hands, Years

  9 Copy quote

• The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death.

  James Hansen

  Energy, Coal, Environment

  "Coal-fired power stations are death factories. Close them" by James Hansen, www.theguardian.com. February 14, 2009.

  11 Copy quote

• If we fail to act, we will end up with a different planet.

  James Hansen

  Motivation, Different, Protection

  5 Copy quote

• 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 Hansen

  Decide Upon, Years, Humanity

  0 Copy quote

• The climate system is being pushed hard enough that change will become obvious to the man in the street in the next decade.

  James Hansen

  Men, Climate, Next

  7 Copy quote

• We have to, in the next ten years, begin to decrease the rate of carbon dioxide emissions and then flatten it out. If that doesn't happen in ten years, we're going to be passing certain tipping points. If the ice sheets begin to disintegrate, what can you do about it? You can't tie a rope around an ice sheet.

  James Hansen

  Years, Ice, Ties

  "Maher: Bush Guilty of “Treason” for Putting “Oil Profits” Before Global Warming Proof". www.newsbusters.org. March 25, 2006.

  3 Copy quote

• Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet.

  James Hansen

  Civilization, Coal, Climate Change

  0 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Hansen

  Giving, Growth, Made

  11 Copy quote

• The five warmest years over the last century occurred in the last eight years.

  James Hansen

  Eight, Years, Lasts

  7 Copy quote

• Adding CO2 to the air is like throwing another blanket on the bed.

  James Hansen

  Air, Bed, Throwing

  2 Copy quote

• As you get more global warming, you should see an increase in the extremes of the hydrological cycle - droughts and floods and heavy precipitation.

  James Hansen

  Global Warming, Increase, Should

  1 Copy quote

• What has become clear from the science is that we cannot burn all of the fossil fuels without creating a very different planet.

  James Hansen

  Creating, Fossils, Different

  "NASA's Chief Climate Scientist Stirs Controversy With Call for Civil Disobedience" by Joshua Rhett Miller, www.foxnews.com. February 27, 2009.

  18 Copy quote

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