Goddard Institute head says global warming serious issue
By Bret Hayworth, Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, May 27, 2007
DENISON, Iowa -- The "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary is divided into 32 breaks, and on Saturday 27 of them, spanning 80 minutes, were shown to a group of 125 people gathered in the expansive Denison High School Fine Arts Center.
At the end, Denison native Dr. James Hansen said the Al Gore film that earned a 2007 Academy Award was accurate, that global warming is a "crisis" that could impact the world within a decade.
Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies at Columbia University in New York City, said global warming caused by mankind burning fossil fuels is settled science, much as Gore cited more than 900 scientific papers proving it and no credible scientists against it.
The key point? One degree n- if the world's temperature rises by even one more degree, massive detrimental changes to earth will occur, Hansen said.
"Al Gore is right when he says we have reached a crisis point. We've got less than a decade to get on track," he said.
Thus far, there have been substantial changes to the planet, including glacial melt in the poles and Greenland, but "the danger is that we reach a tipping point," and the climatic changes will speed forward, Hansen said.
Those changes from carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere, Hansen said, will include ice sheet disintegration, extermination of animal and plant species and regional climate disruptions in following decades. If the oceans rise and the U.S. coasts are flooded, 45 million people living on the coasts would be imperiled.
In the film, Gore notes that 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last 15 years.
Hansen said the earth has witnessed many ice ages and melts going back over hundreds of thousands of years, including the last ice age 20,000 years ago. He said the rise in temperature is more than another historical cycle, and is the product of burning fossil fuels. Hansen said the letter-to-editor writers who sarcastically thank global warming for the warm days in winter miss the point that there is a big difference between "weather fluctuations and climate trends."
Hansen said the U.S. is responsible for sending three times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other nation.
He said greenhouse gas emissions must be controlled, but he said a woman's point from the audience was dead-on n- that while individual people may want to drive higher-mileage cars to reduce fossil fuel burning, the best thing they can do is to lobby lawmakers to address global warming. Hansen said the 40-mpg driving person will likely be offset by individuals driving without care, and so only massive changes driven from the government will make a real dent.
"Right now, they think (global warming) is No. 10 on the list. Politicians are influenced so much by special interests," he said.
"You are not going to convince everybody, you just have to convince enough," Hansen added.
David Anderson of Denison said Gore's film was "too slick" and "political," and that when Gore was vice president the Clinton administration didn't back the Kyoto Treaty that assigned benchmarks for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Anderson said "30 years ago we were worried about global cooling." Hansen responded that "global cooling has been misrepresented" and there was "no consensus" for it in the 1970s, that "just a few isolated papers" incorrectly pointed to that option.
Dorothy Lueck of Denison said she believes global warming is occurring, and the question is whether Americans "react or overreact."
"I'm not sure the political process is serving us well," Lueck said. She said big businesses that produce and are reliant on fossil fuels won't make changes "out of enlightened self-interest."
Hansen said he tries to avoid entanglements with politics, but he's had his share of them.
Warnings ignored
A teacher had Hansen autograph a scientific paper from 1981, one that resulted in the loss of a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. "That was one that got me in trouble," he said.
Further, Hansen said the Bush administration from 2001 to 2004 ignored Hansen's warnings. Said Hansen, "They decided the policies first, and were not willing to change them based on the scientific evidence. And furthermore I even found out that when we wrote a paper and had a press release, that then the White House was editing the press releases," so he cancelled a speech he was scheduled to give in Washington, D.C., and moved it to Iowa City.
At a time when coal is cheap and Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil, wholesale changes will be difficult, Hansen said. He said solar power has some potential.
"President Bush assumes the technology that is going to solve that is going to be hydrogen, but that is very problematic. The technology is not there for hydrogen," he said.
And speaking in his corn-producing home state, Hansen threw cold water on ethanol fuel.
"There is a lot of potential in biofuels," but primarily those that use grasses or cellulosic fibers, he said. "Corn-based ethanol, in the long-term, is not very helpful it still puts a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere."
At the end, Denison native Dr. James Hansen said the Al Gore film that earned a 2007 Academy Award was accurate, that global warming is a "crisis" that could impact the world within a decade.
Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies at Columbia University in New York City, said global warming caused by mankind burning fossil fuels is settled science, much as Gore cited more than 900 scientific papers proving it and no credible scientists against it.
The key point? One degree n- if the world's temperature rises by even one more degree, massive detrimental changes to earth will occur, Hansen said.
"Al Gore is right when he says we have reached a crisis point. We've got less than a decade to get on track," he said.
Thus far, there have been substantial changes to the planet, including glacial melt in the poles and Greenland, but "the danger is that we reach a tipping point," and the climatic changes will speed forward, Hansen said.
Those changes from carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere, Hansen said, will include ice sheet disintegration, extermination of animal and plant species and regional climate disruptions in following decades. If the oceans rise and the U.S. coasts are flooded, 45 million people living on the coasts would be imperiled.
In the film, Gore notes that 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last 15 years.
Hansen said the earth has witnessed many ice ages and melts going back over hundreds of thousands of years, including the last ice age 20,000 years ago. He said the rise in temperature is more than another historical cycle, and is the product of burning fossil fuels. Hansen said the letter-to-editor writers who sarcastically thank global warming for the warm days in winter miss the point that there is a big difference between "weather fluctuations and climate trends."
Hansen said the U.S. is responsible for sending three times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other nation.
He said greenhouse gas emissions must be controlled, but he said a woman's point from the audience was dead-on n- that while individual people may want to drive higher-mileage cars to reduce fossil fuel burning, the best thing they can do is to lobby lawmakers to address global warming. Hansen said the 40-mpg driving person will likely be offset by individuals driving without care, and so only massive changes driven from the government will make a real dent.
"Right now, they think (global warming) is No. 10 on the list. Politicians are influenced so much by special interests," he said.
"You are not going to convince everybody, you just have to convince enough," Hansen added.
David Anderson of Denison said Gore's film was "too slick" and "political," and that when Gore was vice president the Clinton administration didn't back the Kyoto Treaty that assigned benchmarks for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Anderson said "30 years ago we were worried about global cooling." Hansen responded that "global cooling has been misrepresented" and there was "no consensus" for it in the 1970s, that "just a few isolated papers" incorrectly pointed to that option.
Dorothy Lueck of Denison said she believes global warming is occurring, and the question is whether Americans "react or overreact."
"I'm not sure the political process is serving us well," Lueck said. She said big businesses that produce and are reliant on fossil fuels won't make changes "out of enlightened self-interest."
Hansen said he tries to avoid entanglements with politics, but he's had his share of them.
Warnings ignored
A teacher had Hansen autograph a scientific paper from 1981, one that resulted in the loss of a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. "That was one that got me in trouble," he said.
Further, Hansen said the Bush administration from 2001 to 2004 ignored Hansen's warnings. Said Hansen, "They decided the policies first, and were not willing to change them based on the scientific evidence. And furthermore I even found out that when we wrote a paper and had a press release, that then the White House was editing the press releases," so he cancelled a speech he was scheduled to give in Washington, D.C., and moved it to Iowa City.
At a time when coal is cheap and Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil, wholesale changes will be difficult, Hansen said. He said solar power has some potential.
"President Bush assumes the technology that is going to solve that is going to be hydrogen, but that is very problematic. The technology is not there for hydrogen," he said.
And speaking in his corn-producing home state, Hansen threw cold water on ethanol fuel.
"There is a lot of potential in biofuels," but primarily those that use grasses or cellulosic fibers, he said. "Corn-based ethanol, in the long-term, is not very helpful it still puts a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere."
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S.E.Hendriksen wrote on May 29, 2007 3:13 PM:
Harbinger wrote on May 29, 2007 2:35 AM:
Huh?! wrote on May 28, 2007 9:03 AM:
Brad Arnold wrote on May 28, 2007 8:31 AM:
Dr Coles wrote on May 27, 2007 9:57 AM: