James Hansen - Restoring the Earth's Energy Balance
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- James Hansen, the world-renowned former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who put global warming on the world’s agenda through his research in climatology, his development of climate models, his blunt, ground-breaking testimony before the US Senate in 1988 and his book Storms of My Grandchildren.
James Hansen is a world-renowned climate scientist and director of Climate Science and the Climate Science Awareness and Solutions Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. In this exclusive Green Interview, Hansen speaks with Silver Donald Cameron about why it is so difficult to mobilize the public around climate change and what needs to be done, quickly, to restore the Earth’s energy balance. Hansen also explains how a system of carbon pricing would jump start the development of alternative energies, reduce greenhouse gases and provide a return to the public all at the same time.
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This interview is part of The Green Interview, an archive of resources pertinent to an understanding of the future of life on earth and humanity’s roles and responsibilities in sustaining it. The archive was produced by the late Silver Donald Cameron and Chris Beckett during the 10 years before Cameron’s death in 2020. Through the efforts of family and friends and the generosity of private donors, The Green Interview has been made freely available to all who would find it of benefit. Its permanent home is with the Science, Environment and Economy Archives of Library and Archives Canada.
Books by Silver Donald Cameron: www.silverdonal...
#Energy #ClimateChange #TheGreenInterview
This interview, according to the description box, is as long ago as 2010.
He looks a lot older in recent interviews, and has become much more concerned and less relaxed again in recent years.
An excellent interview, well worth watching.
Yes, carbon fee, at source, is crucial to global future including development of noncarbon-based energies. Gratitude for the pure truths here!!
The problem in US politics is: Before any elections a small group of rich people (around 17 000) will decite who can even launch a campaing. There has to be enough campaing funding and these few are dictating who even can be chosen in an election.
So the whole system can be and currently is corrupted via fossil fuel companies.
This can be seen in current situation where a second party does not even have ANY political plans and they yet still gain majority of the house.
Third party would not change that if it does not gain enough money from other sources.
The whole economy and thinking should change, but current system is just rigged to the point where no real changes are possible. Not even a situation where whole survival of our specie is on the line.
US certainly needs a third party, but could even that alter the unbalanced situation?
Hansen’s interview is March 2017. Either he’s on Valium or resigned to Trump’s election (after the Dem’s inability to communicate urgency to the voters).
Lenin said capitalists would sell us the rope we’d use to hang them. The first time capitalism threatened to swallow up democratic govt, its cancerous growth was continued via antitrust legislation. But conservative courts let capitalism continue to threaten democracy, prevented only by imperfect fixes, like the New Deal & Great Society.
The 3rd capitalist threat to democracy began w/ Nixon’s Southern Strategy that helped undermine the good done on civil rights & the environment - and that eased, via Ford & Carter’s deregulation, the transition to Reagan’s restoration of trickle-down capitalism, eg, “govt is not the solution, it’s the problem.”
So, just when the science of global warming began to show that urgent action was needed, the political system was disabled from effective action. This continues to the present due to conservative court decisions reducing the constraints on corporate campaign contributions. An example is the extortionate threats made by corporate Republican campaign contributors leading to withdrawal from the 2015 climate agreement, the Iran nuclear freeze & the trillion-dollar Trump tax cuts.
Meanwhile in 2019, fossil fuel folks & enviros alike saw that peak world oil production had likely occurred (a temporary boom in fracked oil may extend that, but these wells deplete very quickly & the boom will be over). So, w/ plenty of coal being burned by China, India, other developing countries & Japan & Germany, GHG & “regular” air pollution will rise. Worse still, industrial & natural methane pollution are also rising due to leaky nat-gas infrastructure (drilling to appliances) & the onset of tipping points re melting permafrost, methane hydrates on continental shelves & subterranean methane releases as frozen upper layers melt thru.
In the end, we, the alpha of invasive species, has assured our end. As Pogo said at the beginning of the ‘60s Great Acceleration, “We have met the enemy & it’s us.”
Its possible that we will fragment and concentrate around these renewable powerplants since they cannot possibly have the transportability as liquid fuels did
Super! Thank you both.
Hydropower is not completely emission free. First the construction takes loads of materials like cement causing emissions. Secondly all vegetation that ends up in the reservoir that is made for the plant emits methane when it disintegrates under water. But yea, far better than coal plants or methane leaking gas plants.
So, solar, wind and geothermal are the ways for future energy production. We also need lots of energy storaging to balance the energy production and usage.
Great to hear from The Legend himself ❤
The worst problem with price on carbon is: IT IS TOO LATE for slowly rising taxes. It was a good plan if it has been forced 20 years ago. But now we are facing CO2e levels (508 ppm, NOAA 2021) that are leading to 2,7C or more heating of this planet. We need rapid cuts on methane levels and other fast effecting GHG's and in the same time we need to phase out all CO2 emissions. With this way we MAY limit CO2e levels to 450 ppm that is widely accepted 2C limit.
Even limiting warming under 2,5C means we have to change everything in our societies. And fast.
Stop burning.
NOOA have never published a figure as high as 508 ppm that I can find. Current levels (July 2023 at 418 ppm)
500 ppm CO2 equivalent already. We are DONE our 200 year carbon party. Hell of a party it WAS. ❤️🌎❤️
Current CO2 level is 418.43 ppm. (July 2023)
@@peterclarke3020 Equivalent ... not Co2 itself. Take N2O and Methane into account.
But I'm quite confident, we will reach 500ppm Co2 as well. We are well under way right now. 🤬
I agree with fee and divident, but how to ensure, that companies will not rise their prices?
Sadly, the US decided to buy oversized SUVs rather than improving and developing nuclear power.
Now, as for increasing fees, that is what corporate income taxes are for.
One more thing, please remember that ocean life, yes all those little critters that make reefs and other carbonate deposits won't stop until CO2 levels have dropped to 150 ppm and almost all plant and animal life is gone and the glaciers March to the equator.
Why is he concerned about equatorial temperature when all models only expect 1 degree increase in those areas.
You’re missing an important piece of the puzzle. It’s not just energy and energy out it’s conversion of energy to matter with the byproduct being life. During the Holocene. The miracle of life happened because solar energy was processed through a continuous super organism which was ever evolving into carbon other matter with the byproduct being life. It’s not a matter of climate change in greenhouse gases it’s a matter of destroying the natural super organism that evolved during the last several million years which maintain climactic stability
It's a matter of destroying habitat for humans and other species?
@@LarryCleveland Larry, I’m not sure I understand your question. I’m happy to discuss it with you. I have created a living laboratory here in Hawaii to study regenerative farming, and the evolution of bio systems. I think it has given me a perspective that might have some value in a larger conversation. I am often frustrated by well-meaning people who don’t spend enough time with her hands in the dirt to really see the bigger picture. Looking forward to collaborating if that’s a possibility.
it's a matter of RATE of CO2 emissions with the CO2 having a quantum frequency window of absorbing and radiating infrared heat. Currently we are at 100 times the background rate of CO2 emissions with a 10,000 year cycle or turn over rate for CO2 in our biosphere.
Current change rates of golbal temperature change and CO2 levels exceeds all previous change rates in Earths history. Only single higher rate was with the asteroid that killed dinosaurs.
Current CO2 change rate is 100 times higher than what it was when last ice age ended.
Current temperature change rate is 170 times higher than what has been during holosenic era (last 7000 years),
So current climate change is totally out of all natural changes. And this is due to manmade fossil burning that is at record level even today. We are still making change rates way faster and therefore natural processes are lagging badly behind, Nature has never been battling this kind of change rate and it is struggling against permanent loss of species and ecosystems.
We are losing the grid of life all aroud the world and yet still we are making things even harder every day.
Stop burning today.
It's getting warmer, good I hate snow...
@@jasonking1284 what do you love?
Nuclear power can always used in dirty bombs.
But yea, nuclear power is one way to solve some energy issues.
Also hydrogen storaging is possible when you have loads of excessive green energy. And yes, it is still in its infancy, but studied to become better all the time.
For a more dire take see Guy McPherson at NATURE BATS LAST
when was this interview recorded
while 1980s muzak was still trendy
As always, we know what to do - we just don’t do it !
8:12
Decades, I guess more like centuries would be needed to impact on ocean temperatures that consist of depths of 4 kilometers.
9:10 (Milankovitch cycle) this probably has more consequences than what we have contributed to CC.
Thank you for uploading and sharing.
Globally, renewable power is growing 16% a year and EV sales are doubling every three years.
Ok, so 100 EVs, this year, 200 EVs sold by 2026.... nice... I will change my SUV for another SUV in 2026. Good luck charging your car with the double price electricity... oh, and don't forget to wear shoulder and shin pads to help with avoid bruises when scuffling for a charge point...
@grindupBaker Renewable power is already at 15%. Is that tiny to you?
@@jasonking1284 Where do you charge your phone?
@@MinusEighty 10-15 Watts is very, very different from the 50+ KiloWatts an EV needs to charge up in a reasonable time..
James E. Hansen now states that 50% of temperature increase is from reducing the aerosol masking effect by the switch to renewables and the shutting down of coal power plants.
📍46:18
2📍42:39
Hansen refers to the Trump administration, so this interview dates from 2017-2020.
interesting…. you mentioned the nature of physical phenomenon as always seeking balance and equilibrium… its too bad capitalism, Christian capitalism, is not intrinsically seeking equilibrium… we have to insist on sustainability, on ESG because the richest capitalism is based on the ‘dominion’ of the earth which assumes that the wild earth needs to be ‘subdued’. If we continue to subdue the Earth we will no longer hope to be in equilibrium, and we will not be able to live on it! It is bad enough that the rich are not in communion with the poor and there is no upward mobility … but for every Earthling to be unsettled on the earth is a crazy, it is a cult within a cult within an even bigger cult…. a cult of death! Where is this 3rd party for the poor who pray for equilibrium and a communion towards wholeness, instead of constant divisions…
That thesis about the heat on Venus, that was posited by Velikovsky four decade prior.
Venus is 20 million miles closer, therefore it's hotter. End of story...
@@jasonking1284 we can go venus at 1200 ppm co2
Dr. Hansen IS brilliant but, the determining variables are human nature, political will and action. He/we have been TALKING about climate change for (at least) four decades without taking effective action to stop it. Now, even the "conservative," (neoliberal, short term GROWTH at any cost) United Nations IPCC has now admitted that lethal (to life-on-Earth) change is irreversable. There are too many positive, not in a good way, feedback mechanisms forcing global atmospheric heating. Examples include: Brazil's Amazon deforestation converting the region to a net "greenhouse" gas-producer, from the net sink that it used to be. There is no practical way to "unextinct" the species it lost or recreate the original ecosystem. Reflective Arctic sea ice is in terminal melt with a Blue Ocean Event expected within five years. Dark, heat absorbing, ocean will replace the snow and ice there. This will accelerate local sea water heating and melting/sublimation of seafloor methane clathrates and tundra spewing methane into the sea and atmosphere. Again, there is no practical way or will to stop it- etc., etc., etc.
We are well into Earth's 8th (at least) nass extinction and it includes us, old geologist
p.s. "Google;" prof. Guy McPherson's Nature Bats Last here on UA-cam for detais
Ok, it's "irreversible...", now pop a valium and relax and enjoy the show...
We may have already locked in several meters of sea level rise. Check what Jason Box says about this issue.
What when it's rising 3mm a year on average? Yeah let's check that claim again eh?
@@thebritishbookworm2649 You just base you prediction on steady rise. The reality is Thwaites can disintegrate in decades (multiple studies), adding alone 60cm slr other glaciers can do that too, melt ponds and many other melt rate accelerators are not added to current models, ... Also if arctic sea ice melts before 2050, then there is lots of extra heat melting Greenland. It is also raining on the top of Greenland glacier. We don't even knwo how current missing sea ice (2 million sq. km) near Antarctica will change those ice tongues and entire ice sheet.
@martiansoon9092 there is so much wrong with the above comment but as you're so in with the hype of the theoretical nonsense I can see there's no point. No where does it state Artic Ice is going to melt on 500 years never mind 27 years. Sea has been rising 18 000 years with a period of 5000 years much faster than today. The sea wax 120 metres below its current position 22 000 years ago. Seas have been higher than they are today. Last the most extreme rise in sea claims are some where around 5.5 mm a year according to the IPCCs WORSE CASE scenarios of RCP 8.5 which has been proven now to be impossible even if all the fossil fuels in rhe world were burnt off. Nor the IPCCs RCP 6 which behind closed doors they have dropped. All disaster scenarios were only working with the higher end predictions. So absolutely none of the above in this interview is going to happen. James is a hypocrite.
@jjsr7861 There are few pretty rapid geological change going on due to climate change.
When glaciers melts the earth's crust bounces upwards. There is no glacier weight to press the crust down. This is still happening after last ice age. Even in Greenland there is related rising and earthquakes. Also when sea level rises 1 meter, that means a ton of weight per every square meter. While land areas gets no weight the weight is over the seas. That could lead to more earthquakes and volcanoes.
Also when glaciers are gone the underlining grounded rocks are surfaced and starts taking some carbon from atmosphere.
...
@jjsr7861 Tectonical plate movement is still continueing and is a major force.
But now we have lesser changes specially near rapidly melting glaciers. We have still areas where after last ice age land is bouncing upwards rapidly (in geological terms). And similar thing is now happening if Greenland ice sheet melts (it has already started) or if Antarctica really starts to melt. We have already measured increased tectonic activity near Greenland that is related to melt.
Also it is estimated that gravitational shift is so great that when Greenland melts the sea level near Iceland will drop. The gravitational shift is a large force that affects even on Earth's orbit. (More weigth from poles to equator.)
Excellent as always. Canada is worse for sure if u include the forestry industry which is decimating Canadian forest & still clearcutting old growth stands.
"a dividend going to the public" - tell me more!
As someone who has followed Hansen since 1988, I can clearly see a major pivot. Back then we were facing sudden and runaway warming that would likely melt the Arctic by now. And now he is saying that the Earth is actually slow to respond to changes in CO2 levels and that we won't see any big changes for 100 years. Which puts his views in line with the skeptics in 1988. So Hansen agrees that climate sensitivity is low. Then he claims that there have already been significant impacts despite the fact that no meaningful temperature change has occurred. This is not science. This is a blend of politics and religion, but it isn't science.
Er that's not how I see him stating the science. It is however how he presents he's solutions. It's obvious we can't have growth & degrowth is necessary but Hansen doesn't seem able to accept this.
"Climate Emergency" movement IS a religion....
Solar energy beamed to earth to create electricity!
Seems to me that the urgency, and ultimately horror, of his research should have his hair on fire 🔥. Maybe the hat. 😳💥💀
This guy has made millions with a fake graph and alarmist books. He owns a massive personal ranch/farm and has a huge carbon footprint. Still people look to him for a solution to a crisis that isn't even real...
What crazy antiworld you living on?? Wish you could keep your valued "data" to your compatriots and Trump supporters..
@@wulfhafer66 You sound brain washed. There is no crisis. Which is good news. You should be happy.
@@MinusEighty 1 man's global ecological crisis is another person's personal excuse to dismiss the global crisis.
@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 In actual reality. There is no crisis.
@@MinusEighty if that makes you feel better.
Omg, it's getting to late ...
Line up the vigins at the volcano to appease the climate gods....
It is a pity He has resorted to fantasy. I would think that He would surely know better.
Ignorance is truly bliss.
Your opinions are highly valued - even if they have no science backing them.
We cannot trust mainstream science, which serves economics and the global north anymore. And that includes folks like James Hansen (all respect to his scientific work and priority)
We cannot restore something that took millions of years to form, and the last 10,000 odd years of stability we as a species have enjoyed. James Hansen has not much
say about biophysical limits, and perhaps he also believes in Cargoism, which puts all our faith on technology and the exaggerated powers of science.
Proving the work of the Heartland Institute to undermine trust in science 🧬 has been money well spent. “The Mainstream media, mainstream science” - terminal suspicion often tied to party affiliation. We trust technology and science most of the time. But special interests, with “alternative facts” have been busy muddying the waters of understanding. Science proceeds apace while our philosophy, logic, and general education noisily unravel.