Questions about James Hansen
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What did James Hansen say in his 1988 Senate testimony on climate change?
Hansen testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the 23rd of June 1988, stating that NASA was 99% confident that global warming was caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and not a random fluctuation. He declared that the greenhouse effect had been detected and was already changing the climate, and that the four warmest years on record at that time were all from the 1980s.
Where did James Hansen work and what was his educational background?
Hansen was born in Denison, Iowa, and earned all three of his degrees from the University of Iowa: a B.A. in physics and mathematics with highest distinction in 1963, an M.S. in astronomy in 1965, and a Ph.D. in physics in 1967. He began work at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in 1967 and served as its director from 1981 to 2013. After retiring from NASA he directed the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at Columbia University.
Why was James Hansen arrested and how many times?
Hansen was arrested on multiple occasions during environmental protests. He was arrested on the 23rd of June 2009, during a protest against mountaintop removal mining in Raleigh County, West Virginia; in August and September 2011, along with 1,251 other activists, during a two-week White House protest against the Keystone pipeline; and again on the 13th of February 2013, at the White House alongside Daryl Hannah and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
What did James Hansen conclude about climate sensitivity in his 2023 paper?
In the 2023 paper "Global Warming in the Pipeline," Hansen led a team of 18 researchers to conclude that a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide would raise global temperatures by 4.8 plus or minus 1.2 degrees Celsius, significantly above earlier estimates. The paper also projected that the world would pass the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold before the end of the 2020s and the 2 degree threshold before 2050 without significant changes.
What was James Hansen's research on the composition of Venus's clouds?
By 1974, Hansen and Hovenier used the polarization of sunlight reflected from Venus to establish that its clouds were spherical and composed of sulfuric acid, eliminating all other candidate compounds including liquid water and ferrous chloride solutions. The Pioneer Venus project, launched in May 1978, confirmed further details. A 1979 Science paper co-authored by Hansen identified at least three distinct cloud materials: a thin haze layer, sulfuric acid clouds, and an unknown ultraviolet absorber below the sulfuric acid layer.
What awards has James Hansen received for his climate science work?
Hansen's major awards include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996, the 7th Annual Heinz Award in the Environment in 2001 (endowed with $250,000), listing among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2006, the $1-million Dan David Prize in 2007, the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal from the American Meteorological Society in 2009, the Sophie Prize in 2010, and Taiwan's Tang Prize in June 2018, which had a total value of NT$25 million.