James Hansen, NASA GISS Director, Briefing to Congress
According to various sources, James Hansen gave testimony to members of Congress yesterday on the 20th anniversary of his earlier testimony in 1988. The entire text of his speech is available at:
http://www.itomorrow.theforesightproject.org/documents/HansenTestimonyh_...
The NY Times gives some updated background material on Hansen here.
Yesterday's Guardian (a UK paper) says Hansen's plan is to call for putting oil company executives on trial here. Says the Guardian:
James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.
Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech (pdf) to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken immediately if the "perfect storm" of irreversible climate change is not to become inevitable.
Speaking before Congress again, he will accuse the chief executive officers of companies such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of being fully aware of the disinformation about climate change they are spreading.
While you're at it, take a look at Imagining Tomorrow, a program of the Foresight Project headed by Mary Essary, member of Harvard Local. It's a writing program on alternative energy for Massachusetts high school students.
CNN review of Hansen testimony
More on Hansen's testimony on Monday June 23 2008 - it was a briefing for the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, a committee chaired by our own Rep. Ed Markey. The following is part of an AP article posted on CNN. Review and photos are available here.
Scientist: 'We're toast' without action on global warming
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.
James Hansen, sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, testifies Monday
James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels.
He said Earth's atmosphere can stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for only a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.
"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," said Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science. "This is the last chance."
Hansen brought global warming home to the public in June 1988 during a Washington heat wave, telling a Senate hearing that global warming was already here.
To mark the anniversary, he testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, where he was called a prophet. He also addressed a luncheon at the National Press Club, where he was called a hero by former Sen. Tim Wirth, D-Colorado, who headed the 1988 hearing.
To cut emissions, Hansen said, coal-fired power plants that don't capture carbon dioxide emissions shouldn't be used in the United States after 2025 and should be eliminated in the rest of the world by 2030. That carbon-capture technology is still being developed and is not cost-efficient for power plants.
Burning fossil fuels like coal is the chief cause of man-made greenhouse gases. Hansen said the Earth's atmosphere has got to get back to a level of 350 parts of carbon dioxide per million. Last month, it was 10 percent higher: 386.7 parts per million.
More on CNN.