Things You Should Know on Climate Change

Dr. James Hansen - NASA's top climatologist
"There are many things that people can do to reduce their carbon emissions, but changing your light bulb and many of the things are much less effective than changing your diet, because if you eat further down on the food chain rather than animals, which have produced many greenhouse gases, and used much energy in the process of growing that meat, you can actually make a bigger contribution in that way than just about anything. So, that, in terms of individual action, is perhaps the best thing you can do."

HE is now urging the United States to lead in the efforts to counter climate change. He stated, "We cannot now afford to put off change any longer. We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left … to set an example to the rest of the world."

Dr. Hansen emphasized the importance of implementing measures like a carbon tax, which would raise the price of fuels to deter use, and to totally phase out the mining and use of coal. Dr. Hansen: Now if we want to phase out the fossil fuels, which we're going to have to do if we want to maintain a planet that looks like the one that we inherited from our parents, then we're going to have to apply a price to the carbon emissions. And the way that that would work, if you wanted the public to accept it, I think you have to give up 100% of that tax back to the public.