Storms of Our Grandchildren
Dr. James E. Hansen is a pioneer. He was the first guy who attempted to bring global warming to the world’s attention, when he testified before Congress in the 1980′s. At the time this must have felt like one of the most frustrating jobs imaginable. Comparable, perhaps to banging one’s head firmly against a brick wall in the hope of tearing it down and planting a seed in its place. Three decades later, and the issue has become one of the most contentious and hotly debated on the planet. You have a godawful headache, but that wall is now full of cracks.
Dr. Hansen is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, and he’s director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He is perhaps the world’s leading climatologist, but has long shied away from the spotlight and avoided publicity, preferring to focus solely on scientific research. A few years ago this changed, when he realised that he could not face the idea that his grandchildren might one day say: you knew about this and you didn’t do everything you could to get the message across. He has since been one of the most vocal scientists on the issue of global warming and has published a book on the topic.
I’ve recently been making my way – extremely slowly – through Dr. Hansen’s book, Storms of My Grandchildren. Any claims to personal scientific expertise, are founded in armchair studies at best, and I’m rather a weak mathematician to say the least. So if I don’t take it slowly and get each page right, I tend to misunderstand the data and completely lose the plot in a foggy blur of statistical analysis. But that can’t, mustn’t happen. The topic at hand is simply too important. I haven’t finished the book yet, and am still waiting for the moment when everything comes together and I can officially claim climate-change expertise.
However there is one number, percolating the text, that rings out like an alarm bell: 350. Three hundred and fifty. That’s 350 PPM (parts per million) CO2. And it’s the number we must get below to avoid the huge and accelerated negative effects of global warming.
But there are bucket-loads, skip-fulls, oceans more where that came from. And the scientific evidence, like our sea-levels, is only increasing…
So, I advise – nay – implore you read the book for yourself!
James Hansen talks business:
Here’s what another respected climatologist, Bill McKibben said of the book:
Jim Hansen is the planet’s great hero. He offered us the warning we needed twenty years ago, and has worked with enormous courage ever since to try and make sure we heeded it. We’ll know before long if that effort bears fruit—if it does, literally no one deserves more credit than Dr. Hansen.
McKibben is the coordinator of 350.org and author of “The End of Nature” and below he talks about Parts Per Million:
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