James E. Hanson Quotes
Global Warming
James E. Hanson, Director, NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, Term coined and first used in 1981
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The governor actually believed that global warming was the plot of left wingers. Since 99 percent of all qualified scientists agreed that the earth was experiencing an increase in average temperature and that much of the increase was cause by the actions of humans, Perry had to believe that somehow all these scientists had been coopted, intimidated, and enlisted to perpetrate this hoax. One problem with global warming policy making is that while virtually all scientists agree on the fact, there is disagreement of the extent, the timing and the causes. How many degrees of increase will occur and when? What will be the consequences? When will the changes take place? What proportion is man-made? These answers will come as more research is done, but many politicians are reluctant to do anything without precise estimates of the answers to these questions.
This was his last House debate and whereas almost all scientists had agreed that climate change was a serious challenge to the nation, an ideologically driven majority of his Republican Party denied that that there was any climate change that was different from the usual vicissitudes of nature, he tried to persuade his anti-scientific, conservative colleagues to face reality.
