Posted on 25 July 2020 by John Hartz

Editor's Choice

The Climate Expert Who Delivered News No One Wanted to Hear

From 2009: How a scientist known as the “father of global warming” watched his dire predictions for the planet come true.

James Hansen on curbing coal emissions: “The science is clear. This is our one chance.” Illustration by John Cuneo

A few months ago, James Hansen, the director of nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in Manhattan, took a day off from work to join a protest in Washington, D.C. The immediate target of the protest was the Capitol Power Plant, which supplies steam and chilled water to congressional offices, but more generally its object was coal, which is the world’s leading source of greenhouse-gas emissions. As it happened, on the day of the protest it snowed. Hansen was wearing a trench coat and a wide-brimmed canvas boater. He had forgotten to bring gloves. His sister, who lives in D.C. and had come along to watch over him, told him that he looked like Indiana Jones.

The march to the power plant was to begin on Capitol Hill, at the Spirit of Justice Park. By the time Hansen arrived, thousands of protesters were already milling around, wearing green hard hats and carrying posters with messages like “Power Past Coal” and “Clean Coal Is Like Dry Water.” Hansen was immediately surrounded by TV cameras.

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on The New Yorker magazine website on June 22, 2009. 

The Climate Expert Who Delivered News No One Wanted to Hear, by Elizabeth Kolbert, Profiles, The New Yorker Magazine, June 27, 2020 Print Edition

Articles Linked to on Facebook

Sun, July 19, 2020

• The entire world’s carbon emissions will finally be trackable in real time by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, July 16, 2020
• The battle for the ‘breathing lands’: Ontario’s Ring of Fire and the fate of its carbon-rich peatlands by James Wilt, Carbon Cache, Narwhal, July 11, 2020
• Stories from the Youth Climate Movement in the Global South, Opinion by Inés M. Pousadela, Yes! Magazine, July 17, 2020
• The Wood Pellet Business is Booming. Scientists Say That’s Not Good for the Climate. by James Bruggers, InsideClimate News, July 13, 2020

Mon, July 20, 2020

• Air conditioning curbs could save years' worth of emissions – study by Jillian Ambrose, Environment, Guardian, July 17, 2020
• No time for loopholes: Japan must immediately end all overseas coal finance by Lidy Nacpil & Susanne Wong, Climate Home News, July 17, 2020
• John Lewis And His Environmental Legacy by Marshall Shepherd. Science, Forbes, July 18, 2020
• As the Culture Wars Flare Amid the Pandemic, a Call to Speak ‘Science to Power’ by Judy Fahys, InsideClimate News, July 20, 2020
• Arctic sea ice is in a downward spiral, and may break a record in 2020 by Andrew Freedman, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, July 21, 2020

Tue, July 21, 2020

• Book review: Bad science and bad arguments abound in 'Apocalypse Never' by Michael Shellenberger by Dr Peter H Gleick, Article, Yale Climate Connections, July 15, 2020
• 'Carbon savings' from Covid-19 lockdown halve within weeks by Jillian Ambrose, Environment, Guardian, July 19, 2020
• More big NZ deluges likely with emerging La Nina - Niwa by Jamie Morton, New Zealand Herald, July 21, 2020
• Arctic sea ice is in a downward spiral, and may break a record in 2020 by Andrew Freedman, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, July 21, 2020

Wed, July 22, 2020

• Flooding in Assam and Nepal kills hundreds and displaces millions by Hannah Ellis-Petersen, World, Guardian, July 20, 2020
• Atlantic hurricane season begins to awaken with storms as water temperatures climb ominously by Matthew Cappucci, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, July 21, 2020
• Climate change on track to wipe out polar bears by 2100 by by Marlowe Hood, Phys.org, July 20, 2020
• EU Approves Biggest Green Stimulus in History With $572 Billion Plan by Ewa Krukowska & Laura Millan Lombrana, Bloomberg News, July 21, 2020

Thu, July 23, 2020

• Tropical Storm Gonzalo forms as second tropical disturbance swirls in the Gulf of Mexico by Matthew Cappucci, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, July 22, 2020
• Coronavirus Rages on Coasts as Hurricane Fears Rise by Thomas Frank, E&E News, Scientific American, July 22, 2020
• Major new climate study rules out less severe global warming scenarios by Andrew Freedman & Chris Mooney, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, July 22, 2020
• 12 more books for summer reading lists by Michael Svoboda, PhD, Review, Yale Climate Connections, July 14, 2020

Fri, July 24, 2020

• The Climate Expert Who Delivered News No One Wanted to Hear, Profile by Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker Magazine, June 27, 2020 Print Edition
• Nuclear power has been top-down and hierarchical. These women want to change that. by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, July 21, 2020
• E.P.A. Proposes Airplane Emission Standards That Airlines Already Meet by Coral Davenport, Climate, New York Times, July 22, 2020
• How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now) by Howard Lee, Quanta Magazine, July 21, 2020

Sat, July 25, 2020

• In Climate Terms, ‘Brown’ Is Always Bad—and That’s a Problem by Kate Mackenzie, Stranded Assets, Bloomberg News, July 24, 2020
• Worst- and Best-Case Scenarios for Warming Less Likely, Groundbreaking Study Finds by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News, Scientific American, July 23, 2020
• 'Everybody’s entitled to their opinion - but not their own facts': The spread of climate denial on Facebook by Louise Boyle, Environment, The Independent (UK), July 24, 2020
• What Joe Biden’s Climate Plan Really Signals by Bill Mckibben, Annals of a Warming Planet, The New Yorker Magazine, July 22, 2020