These quotes from James Hansen are a vital reminder of our responsibility to our children and grandchildren, to all the children of all the species, and to our Earth Mother. I speak up and act in every way possible, again and again and again, because I am a mother and a grandmother to five grandchildren, aged 1,2,3,4, and 5. I also repeatedly illuminate the urgency of the peril we are in because my circle of caring expands to include all of life on this beautiful, hurting planet we share. It is of critical importance that we take responsibility for educating ourselves about our warming planet, sharing what we are learning, and doing our part — no matter how large or small — to ensure a livable planet for Earth's inhabitants now and in the generations to come. We are truly all in this together. And this is the greatest threat and the greatest challenge that humankind has ever faced in all of our history. The eyes of the children are watching. — Molly
Planet Earth, creation, the world in which civilization developed, the world with climate patterns that we know and stable shorelines, is in imminent peril.
The greatest danger hanging over our children and grandchildren is initiation of changes that will be irreversible on any time scale that humans can imagine.
Imagine a giant asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth. That is the equivalent of what we face now with climate change, yet we dither.
Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet...The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death.
Global warming isn't a prediction. It is happening.
Scientists will say we can't blame global warming for any single event. In a sense that's right, but the fact that the frequency and intensity of these events is increasing you can blame on global warming.
The five warmest years over the last century occurred in the last eight years.
Global warming has already triggered a sea level rise that could reach from 6 metres (19.69 ft) to 25 metres (27.34 yards).
Coral reefs, the rain forest of the ocean, are home for one-third of the species of the sea. Coral reefs are under stress for several reasons, including warming of the ocean, but especially because of ocean acidification, a direct effect of added carbon dioxide. Ocean life dependent on carbonate shells and skeletons is threatened by dissolution as the ocean becomes more acid.
As species are exterminated by shifting climate zones, ecosystems can collapse, destroying more species.
If we drive our fellow species to extinction, we will leave a far more desolate planet for our descendants than the world we inherited from our elders.
We're handing them [young people & future generations] a climate system which is potentially out of their control. We're in an emergency: you can see what's on the horizon over the next few decades with the effects it will have on ecosystems, sea level and species extinction.
Several times in Earth's history, rapid global warming occurred, apparently spurred by amplifying feedbacks. In each case, more than half of plant and animal species became extinct. New species came into being over tens and hundreds of thousands of years. But these are time scales and generations that we cannot imagine.
Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.
Policy decisions on climate change are being deliberated every day by those without full knowledge of the science, and often with intentional misinformation spawned by special interests.
Politicians think that if matters look difficult, compromise is a good approach. Unfortunately, nature and the laws of physics cannot compromise — they are what they are.
Until the public demands otherwise, the policy makers will continue to serve their financiers.
The climate dice are now loaded. Some seasons still will be cooler than the long-term average, but the perceptive person should notice that the frequency of unusually warm extremes is increasing. It is the extremes that have the most impact on people and other life on the planet.
Burning all the fossil fuels will destroy the planet we know, Creation, the planet of stable climate in which civilization developed.
The urgency derives from the nearness of climate tipping points.
It would be immoral to leave young people with a climate system spiraling out of control.
We are on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption.
Only in the last few years did the science crystallize, revealing the urgency — our planet really is in peril. If we do not change course soon, we will hand our children a situation that is out of their control.
We have at most ten years — not ten years to decide upon action, but ten years to alter fundamentally the trajectory of global greenhouse emissions... We are near a tipping point, a point of no return, beyond which the built in momentum and feedbacks will carry us to levels of climate change with staggering consequences for humanity and all of the residents of this planet.
The carbon emissions from tar shale and tar sands would initiate a continual unfolding of climate disasters over the course of this century. We would be miserable stewards of creation. We would rob our own children and grandchildren.
Jail threats did not dissuade Martin Luther King — and intergenerational justice is a moral issue of comparable magnitude to civil rights.
I have been described as the grandfather of climate change. In fact, I am just a grandfather and I do not want my grandchildren to say that grandpa understood what was happening but didn't make it clear.
— James Hansen
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