Printer-friendly versionJames Hansen to Discuss Human-Made Climate Change at Institute for Advanced Study
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James E. Hansen |
James E. Hansen, climatologist and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, will present “Human-Made Climate Change: A Moral, Political and Legal Issue” on Friday, November 19, at 5:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus.
Hansen’s talk is part of the Institute’s annual series, Lectures on Public Policy, which aims to address issues relevant to contemporary politics and social conditions and scientific matters of broad import.
In this lecture, Hansen will discuss factors including observations of ongoing climate change, paleoclimate data and climate simulations, all of which point to the fact that human-made greenhouse gases have set Earth on a path to climate change with potentially dangerous consequences for humanity.
Hansen will explain the urgency of the situation and discuss why he believes it is a moral issue that pits the rich and powerful against the young and unborn, against the defenseless and against nature. He will explore available options to avoid morally unacceptable consequences.
For further information about the lecture, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.
About James E. Hansen
Hansen received a B.A. in physics and mathematics in 1963, an M.S. in astronomy in 1965, and a Ph.D. in physics in 1967, all from the University of Iowa. Hansen first joined Columbia University as a Research Associate in 1969. He became Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences in 1978 and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in 1985. The author of many scientific articles, Hansen was awarded the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal from the American Meteorological Society in 2009, the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service in Science in 2008, and the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal by the World Wildlife Fund in 2006. In 2001, he received both the John Heinz Environment Award and the American Geophysical Union’s Roger Revelle Medal. Hansen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996.
About the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of no more than 28, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.
The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Some 33 Nobel Laureates and 38 out of 52 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.