[Vision2020] NASA's Hansen:10 Years To Tipping Point

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml

Is it fair to say at this point that humans control the climate? Is that
possible?

"There's no doubt about that, says Hansen. "The natural changes, the speed
of the natural changes is now dwarfed by the changes that humans are making
to the atmosphere and to the surface."

Those human changes, he says, are driven by burning fossil fuels that pump
out greenhouse gases like CO2, carbon dioxide. Hansen has a theory that man
has just 10 years to reduce greenhouse gases before global warming reaches
what he calls a tipping point and becomes unstoppable. He says the White
House is blocking that message.

"In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such
restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public,"
says Hansen.

Restrictions like an e-mail Hansen's institute received from NASA in 2004.
"… there is a new review process … ," the e-mail read. "The White House (is)
now reviewing all climate related press releases," it continued.

Why the scrutiny of Hansen's work? Well, his Goddard Institute for Space
Studies is the source of respected but sobering research on warming. It
recently announced 2005 was the warmest year on record. Hansen started at
NASA more than 30 years ago, spending nearly all that time studying the
earth. How important is his work? *60 Minutes* asked someone at the top,
Ralph Cicerone, president of the nation's leading institute of science, the
National Academy of Sciences.

"I can't think of anybody who I would say is better than Hansen. You might
argue that there's two or three others as good, but nobody better," says
Cicerone.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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