James Hansen at Sydney Ideas (Sydney University 2010)
James Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Trained in physics and astronomy in Dr James Van Allen’s space science program at the University of Iowa, Hansen is best known for his Congressional testimony on climate change in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of global warming.
He has been an active researcher in planetary atmospheres and climate science for nearly 40 years, with the last 30 years focused on climate research, publishing more than 100 scholarly articles on the latter topic. Time Magazine designated Dr. Hansen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2006, a tribute to his continuing efforts to serve the public through his scientific work
Mike Hulme – Why We Disagree About Climate Change
Mike Hulme is a UK Professor of Climate Change who thinks we’ve mistaken the means for the end when it comes to climate change action. On a visit to Australia, he gives an impassioned lecture about why it’s such a hard sell in such a “partisan era”. We should stop focusing, he says, on the goal of trying to “stop climate change”, or identifying which risks are natural or not.
Instead, Hulme says we should focus on ensuring that the basic needs of the world’s growing population are adequately met. It’s a very plain argument, which is also hopeful about the future. Amongst Hulme’s “good news” stories is India’s considerable solar power production. His lecture at TAFE NSW Sydney Institute was given in conjunction with the Hot Science Global Citizens symposium. He was introduced by Australian climate scientist, David Karoly.
Professor Mike Hulme is a Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in the UK. Hulme was, for 12 years, a senior researcher in the Climatic Research Unit, part of the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. In 2000, he founded the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, a distributed virtual network organisation based at UEA, which he directed until July 2007. Hulme is the author of “Why We Disagree About Climate Change”.
Sir David Attenborough: The truth about Climate Change
The legendary broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough was long unsure about the causes of the observed climate warming. In his documentary, The Truth About Climate Change, he sheds doubt and explains what convinced him.
Climate models based on purely natural processes such as solar activity and volcanic eruptions fail to explain the observed change in Earth’s climate in the latter part of the 20th century. Models factoring in the human impact, that is, the increase of carbon dioxide in the athmosphere, depict the transpired warming accurately, however.
NASA’s James Hansen talks to David Letterman on the Late Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhm-NCu5bjw
James Hansen is perhaps best known for bringing global warming to the world’s attention in the 1980s, when he first testified before the US Congress. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and at Columbia’s Earth Institute, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, he is frequently called to testify before Congress on climate issues. Dr. Hansen’s background in both space and earth sciences allows a broad perspective on the status and prospects of our home planet.
Dr Richard Milne – Critical Thinking on Climate Change: separating skepticism from denial
Dr Richard Milne, School of Biological Sciences, presents Critical Thinking on Climate Change: separating skepticism from denial.
A conversation with James Hansen
Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is considered by many to be the foremost climatologist in the world. From his New York City office, he spoke with Climate Crisis Coalition Coordinator Tom Stokes, on May 10, 2008, about the science of climate change, the urgency of enacting effective climate legislation and why he is speaking out about it. Dr. Hansen believes that we should enact a carbon tax with the revenue recycled back to the people, rather than a cap-and-trade system.
Climate Change — Man vs. Nature
Our climate is changing — no doubt about it. Heat waves are sweeping the continent, drought is devastating the south, yet floods have destroyed much of the Mississippi River Valley… and across the globe tsunamis, hurricanes and tornadoes are racking up billions of dollars in damage and costing thousands of lives.
So we ask, what is causing the planet to experience such drastic weather patterns — is it just the normal cycle of nature or is man at the root of these changes? Guests: Andrew Dessler, Ph.D, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University and David Bieler, Ph.D, Chair & Associate Professor Geology, Centenary College of Louisiana.
Sixty Minutes with James Hansen
Dr James Hansen, Adjunct Professor at Colombia University’s Earth Institute and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, talks to the University of Canterbury community about anthropogenic climate change and the future.
Keeling Lecture: Climate Change – The Evidence and Our Options
In this Second Annual Keeling Lecture from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, Lonnie G. Thompson, distinguished professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University and recipient of both the National Medal of Science and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, provides insight into the convincing evidence of climate change provided by glaciers and polar ice-caps, and the implications that inaction in the face of this rapid change will have on societies on a global scale.
Climate Change Politics: Naomi Oreskes, John Barron & Tom Switzer
ABC News 24: Featuring in this panel discussion are Naomi Oreskes, John Barron and Tom Switzer, who discuss the politics of climate change denial. John Barron and Tom Switzer are research associates at the US Studies Centre.
Naomi Oreskes is is an American science historian, and Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego. She has worked on studies of geophysics, environmental issues such as global warming, and the history of science.
In 2010, Oreskes co-authored Merchants of Doubt which identified some parallels between the climate change debate and earlier public controversies.
Climate Change: The Critical Decade - Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
Recent climate science suggests our future looks dire. Most relevant observed trends — in greenhouse-gas emissions, global and regional warming, sea-ice loss and sea-level rise — are in the upper range of projections.
Despite a worldwide political consensus to limit global average temperature rise to less than 2 degrees celsius, the collective effect of current national measures will lead to average warming of up to 4 degrees by the end of this century. Climate change now threatens to disrupt the Earth’s systems in ways that are beyond all human experience.
