Climate Files / Hansen Talks Climate in Sydney
Hansen speaking in Adelaide, March 2010
He speaks about energy policy too, and clearly feels frustrated with the bias against nuclear power. It’s not that he’s a big advocate of nuclear power, but Hansen realizes that we need carbon-free power and that it cannot all come from what he calls “soft renewables”. Here are a few other points he makes that are not widely known:
- The whole problem with our energy is that fossil fuels are cheap. So to get people to change their behavior, we need a gradually rising price on carbon. To get the public to accept the additional cost, we need to return this money to the public.
- The climate system is incredibly sensitive. We know from paleoclimate history that the climate has changed a lot in the past. To make predictions of coming climate, climate scientists are not depending on “climate modeling” so much as real data they are getting from the past and the present.
- Six other countries are developing 4th Generation nuclear plants, and China is building at least 24 new nuclear plants.
- We will not get rid of nuclear plants, so we should be making them safer.
- Renewable energy is what everyone wants to hear, but the fact is, they are still invisible on the graph. There is a renewable portion on the graph, but that is burning of biomass. The dream that soft renewable technologies will be enough is not supported by empirical evidence. India and china are planning on going with mainly nuclear for their future power.
- Hansen also expresses his disappointment and frustration with the Obama administration and politicians like Senator John Kerry, who want him to support the Obama administration’s plans for coal and CCS and oil drilling. Hansen won’t, for obvious reasons.
Hansen also wrote an article while he was in Australia in March. — “Only a carbon tax and nuclear power can save us”, claims The Australian. in its title of his article. He didn’t really say that, but that could be inferred from what he did say.
The video version of this podcast is in three parts from Blip TV here. This podcast contains all three parts in one episode.
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Climate Scientist James Hansen is known as the ‘grandfather of climate change’ and is perhaps the world’s leading authority on the science of climate change. He is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and has for the last 30 years focused on climate research, publishing more than 100 scholarly articles on the topic. This talk was presented by Sydney Ideas and the United States Studies Centre, March 11, 2010.
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Climate Files 55 / Drop the Nuke Bias
Being antinuclear is like a religion to many environmentalists. But solving climate change will be a compromise of what is possible and needed. We are not going to get a green utopian world to emerge and solve climate change with windmills. Even environmentalists want to be able to charge their cell phones and laptops. Should we throw it all away, or find out a realistic way to power it all once the coal plants are gone? We should be supporting nuclear plants over CCS any day. The last thing we want to do is spend billions locking in coal for another 50 years, something that could kill us all.
The Clean Air Act is under attack by Republicans with new legislation trying to block EPA again again. You can help save it by contacting your Reps. here.
Some news discussed in this episode includes information on and quotes from the books Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen and the Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock. Hansen’s letter to Obama is here (PDF). The UK must raise its CO2 emissions target to a 42% cut, says a new report. Read why our endless consumerism needs to be replaced with sustainable living here. The story about Bell Labs greening the internet by 2015 is here. There is a lot more in this episode including an audio description of what a thorium reactor is and how it works.
Read another interview with Stewart Brand, whose interview is played in this episode, here at e360.
More info on thorium reactors:
- How a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) works
- Energy from Thorium blog
- Uranium is so Last Century
Contact CF using the contact form at the top or email CF at news @ climatefilesradio (dot) com
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Music at end: Nuclear Power Plant by Zen Eyes
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Climate Files 54 / Sound the Alarm
MOVING on with news and politics about global warming in the new year. Let’s forget COP15 even happened. Look ahead, what else can we do? Today Climate Files includes a recent short interview with climate scientist James Hansen largely about his book Storms of my Grandchildren.
Remember: sounding the alarm is not alarmism — it’s realism and a hope that people will listen and act on climate change. It’s our job to educate, because not everyone knows about climate change, and they may not “believe in it” for all the wrong reasons. An email exchange regarding a denier’s claims is something everyone can do (and I read mine). We have to keep educating the deniers and maybe one of these days they’ll give up the Dark Side.
News covered in this episode includes:
U.S. Car Fleet Shrinks For First Time in 50 Years, Report Says. It might be bad for business, but it’s good for the climate when people drive less and own less vehicles. Sorry, GM.
Climate Pledge Tracker Compares Nations’ CO2 Emissions Limits. You can see the new climate pledge tracker site here.
EPA is working with the Spruce No. 1 mine on their new permit, but there are a lot of problems and the mine may threaten water and over 2,000 acres of forest. Bad news, but it’s not likely to be approved. Read more here.
Storing CO2 in basalt is a new idea but not a very practical one, at least not now. Read the article here at Futurism Now. The study I mentioned is actually two studies. Here is an excerpt from FN news:
A July 2008 study by the same researchers found that 208 billion metric tons could be stored in the offshore basalt formations of the U.S. Northwest’s Juan de Fuca tectonic plate — that is as much as 150 years’ worth of U.S. emissions. . . . . In a study released Monday, ABI Research predicted that new CCS projects will keep 146 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Their estimates are based on markets for carbon emissions allowances encouraging firms to seek out technologies like CCS to limit their emissions.
The problem with that claim is that the U.S. emits about 7.1 billion metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) of greenhouse gases per year, (my estimate of 5.7 billion metric tons in the podcast was low) and that means only about 34 years of U.S. emissions could be forced into basalt, if the procedure even works.
The CIA is sharing data with climate scientists. Australia is baking hot this summer! All of this and more is discussed in this episode.
Download this episode here or you can subscribe on the right. (click on RSS icon if you don’t want iTunes).
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Climate Files 50 / Climate Files
Here is your Copenhagen climate summit summary from Week 1.
Recorded clips include Naomi Klein, Nnimmo Bassey from Klimaforum09, and James Hansen from an interview with The Guardian on December 2nd. Hansen discussed nuclear power and how this climate summit isn’t going to be adequate. Naomi Klein discusses mainly the same things, but from her economic justice perspective. Bassey is a well-known Nigerian climate activist.
Here is the main, official Copenhagen draft text as of December 11th,(PDF) and here is the (better) Klimaforum Declaration (opens new page).
Climate Files is the new name of this podcast and it will be gradually changing to that in the next week or two. Mainly it needs the word “climate” in it because that’s what it’s about, climate and politics, so that people can more easily find it, and it more accurately reflects what it is. Also, I need to get it consolidated with the articles website, which will also be renamed Climate Files, and get them off the old podcastliberally domain name. Yes, the RSS feed will change so you will have to change your subscription, sorry about that. Please come back to check on when this will happen. (The old RSS feed will be rerouted for a month after the new one is made.) Please stay subscribed or I have no way of knowing how many people are tuning in. The new websites are called Climate Files Radio and Climate Files, but at this point, there is nothing there. Links and much of the info that is now on FN will be there eventually. All FN podcasts will be migrated to the new site.
Also, send comments to news @ climatefiles.com from now on.
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Climate Files 48 / Climate Summit Anticipation
The world's most important climate summit starts on December 7th
This is your Copenhagen Climate Summit introduction. In this episode you will find out some basic answers to: why is the summit important? What can we expect?
President Obama will be attending the Copenhagen climate summit on December 18th.
The climate science continues to be very serious. In the new Report: Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment, it is reported that warming will escalate in the Antarctic once the ozone hole is closed, in only a few short decades. You can download the report here. The basic rundown of the summit and brief background is here. The UNFCCC’s 10 frequently asked questions about the Copenhagen deal is here (pdf).
In this episode, the Real News interviews Tzeporah Berman of Canada. She is the Executive Director and one of the Co-founders of PowerUp Canada. Tzeporah is also known for her work in the early 1990s coordinating the largest civil disobedience protest in Canada’s history in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She discusses Copenhagen and what to expect, as well as the cooperation on climate of the U.S. and Canada. If the US, Canada and China are committed to oil and coal, what can Copenhagen accomplish? Two portions of her interview are played in this episode (1 and 3) and you can find part 2 at the Real News network.
James Hansen has released an article with his thoughts about his grandchildren’s future, emissions caps, and the Copenhagen summit, which is read in this episode. You can read it yourself here (pdf).
For those wanting more media on the Copenhagen summit, here is the Youtube channel for COP15, and here is the main UNFCCC COP15 website. Their Virtual Participation site is here. FN will be doing as many updates during the Summit as we can. It also looks like I will be able to get an exclusive report or two from someone who is already there. More on that later, and on a recent energy committee hearing that got very interesting.
Download this episode here Listen here or subscribe on the right. Video link for the protest you hear on the end (which occurred in Washington DC) is here.
Music for this episode from David Holmes.
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Climate Files 40 / History of Global Warming Science
The history of the discovery of global warming/climate change goes back much farther in time than people think.
And no, global warming was not invented by Al Gore. NASA scientist James Hansen didn’t discover it either, despite his 1988 testimony before Congress. Global warming theory has been around for a long time, since before industrialization. In fact, it started with observations in 300 B.C.!
How did the idea for global warming and climate change start?
Find out in this episode, with a global warming history timeline assisted by Mother Jones and other news sources. It brings you right up to the present.
This was NaPodPoMo (National Podcast Post Month) episode #6, the 6th installment of my podcast marathon for the month of November.
Download this episode here Listen here or subscribe to Climate Files in the right-hand column.
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Climate Files 27 / National Clean Energy Summit 2.0
Bright Source energy solar array
How best to mitigate climate change legislatively, and jobs and energy–specifically renewable energy discussed at the National Clean Energy Summit (website here). (The subtitle of this episode is “Dog and Pony Show”) See the news items I discussed on the FN news site here.
The most disappointing bit of news was that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (and Obama, by inference) OK’d the Alberta Clipper pipeline that was discussed last week. There is also new evidence that the methane in the oceans is beginning to bubble to the surface. Methane is a super-potent greenhouse gas that is stored in very cold slushy pools at the bottoms of the oceans and now, it’s escaping. And it’s not just methane.
Research finds higher acidity in Alaska waters
The Age of Stupid, will launch in America on September 21st 2009 from a solar-powered cinema tent in New York LIVE to over 400 movie theatres across the country. This One Night Only live event is your only chance to see The Age of Stupid on the big screen and is timed for the day before the UN’s climate meeting on September 22nd, when 80 Heads of State – and therefore the world’s media – will gather in New York. This movie also kicks off the UN’s Climate Week.
Speakers from the Direct Carbon Pricing senate briefing on July 13, 2009:
- James Hansen, PhD: Leading climate scientist
- Robert Shapiro, PhD: Co-Founder and Chairman, Sonecon; former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs; economist, author
- Prof. Janet E. Milne, JD: Professor of Law, Vermont Law School, author of “The Reality of Carbon Taxes in the 21st Century”
- Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Co-Coordinator, Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change
- Moderated by Brent Blackwelder, PhD: President, Friends of the Earth
See the video and find out more at http://www.pricecarbon.org
The National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 was the real dog and pony show. Half of the people there were hawking their particular form of energy they have invested in, in their attempts to sell it to us. Some of it was very good, such as the real renewable energy like solar. The other people there played supporting roles, except for Bill Clinton and Al Gore and a few others. There were many speakers, it was hours and hours long, and this episode only plays a few excerpts from the following.
- Denise Bode – CEO, American Wind Energy Association
- Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
- Secretary Steven Chu – U.S. Department of Energy
- Former Vice President Al Gore
- Rose McKinney James – Energy Foundation
- John Woolard – President and CEO, Bright Source Energy
- Steve Roell – Chairman and CEO, Johnson Controls
- Former Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO) – United Nations Foundation, Moderator
You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
Music: Waterslide by The Bonedaddys and Rush, 2112 with Lessons at the end. (Yes, I just saw I Love You, Man, which contains “Waterslide” and mucho Rush, hilariously too, though not this stuff.)
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Climate Files 21 / Greening Suzuki
David Suzuki
David Suzuki talks at Greening the Heartland in Detroit. Also, this Futurism Now podcast contains news and info from people trying to kick the Senate in the pants on climate change.
There was a Mountain Top Removal protest last week at Marsh Fork Elementary School at Coal Mountain West Virginia, attended by some very well known people including Dr. James Hansen, NASA climate scientist, and actress and environmental activist Darryl Hannah. Hannah wrote an article for the Huffington Post about why she deliberately got arrested with several others at Coal Mountain, making a statement about the Marsh Fork elementary school there which is threatened by 2.8 billion gallons of coal sludge which is in a holding pond above the school. Listen here and read her story at the Huffington Post.
More on mountaintop removal next time. To take action, visit http://www.ilovemountains.org and RAN.org
Autism and coal burning link — Study Says Autism Linked To Coal Power Plants
Arctic Sea Ice is at Lowest Point in 800 Years
Canada and Russia, the new Bad Boys of Oil, are making the least progress in cutting carbon- dioxide emissions among the major economies, a new study shows.
Check out The Nature of Things, the show that David Suzuki created in Canada at the CBC.
David Suzuki is presented with audio from the Greening the Heartland conference.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
Music: Earth Song, Michael Jackson; The Burning World, Eldorado And The Ruckus
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Climate Files 14 / Nuclear Power Potential
This episode presents four scientists and environmentalists making the case for the use of nuclear power.
It’s believed by some people that environmentalists should be against nuclear power — I completely disagree. We are trying to find ways to solve and stop climate change, not fight the possibilities and the ideas for doing that. Nuclear power has improved a lot since the 1970′s, and it’s a strong source of nearly CO2-free power. Nuclear energy is not a political issue, it’s just a form of energy, and for the near future at least, a necessary one. There are many environmentalists who are for the development of new nuclear power, Generation IV or IFR — Integral Fast Reactors. This episode discusses nuclear power, why it may be necessary, why new power plants are safer, and why it might be a good source of heavy-duty power for many years to come.
Read chapter 4 on nuclear power from the new book Prescription for the Planet, — “Newclear Power” – by downloading it here. Author Tom Blees has generously decided to put this chapter (pg 117 — 139) on the web to allow a more rapid dissemination of the basic facts about IFR to everyone you know (family, friends, fellow environmentalists, politicians, the media) — so please do pass on the link: http://tinyurl.com/cwvn8n
Also visit the site for the book and download chapter 1. This notification came from a very good spot online for energy information: Brave New Climate.
More on the The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) project here.
Also interesting: George Monbiot does not reject nuclear power. Neither does climate scientist James Hansen, or UK scientist James Lovelock. Neither does Energy Secretary Steven Chu. If nuclear will be a necessary power source for the future, when can we start building them?
Nuclear Energy Must Power Our Future — an Intelligence Squared debate, and two viewpoints on nuclear energy are in this episode.
The graphic for this episode is from the COP15 logo. You can sign up and submit your thoughts to the UN’s “Climate Thoughts”. A very cool globe of thoughts from all over the world.
Music: Afro Celt Sound System “Dark Moon, High Tide”
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FN12 / Take Action / A Republican Mis-Leader
We need climate legislation before it’s too late. According to a new May 5th CNN poll a majority of Americans DO want something done about climate change. Congress, are you listening? They need to hear from us. May 6th and every day is CALL IN day to Congress. But there are several key Democrats that really need some pushing on a climate bill. You can read about this action here and get the list of congressmen to call, their phone numbers, and even a script.
So Today –Take action on climate change legislation today and every day until legislation passes. See the recent action alert at ChesapeakeClimate.org (CCAN) The phone-in day is today but you can call every day until we get something passed!
See more at the Futurism Now blog — Action Day on Climate Legislation.
James Hansen, NASA climate scientist, wrote a letter to the Australian minister of climate change, which you can read from his website link. (It’s a pdf.) I only read his note explaining his frustration that he sent out to those on his mailing list.
Newt Gingrich spent some time in Congress last month misleading the American people and Congress on the economics of climate legislation. There were some mild fireworks, but there need to be more. Some Newt is played, but don’t enjoy it too much.
The government can fund all the new energy it wants, but people need to get those dividend checks from the tax and dividend or cap and trade legislation that is passed. That is what the Larsen bill and the Van Hollen bill describe. So mention those two bills when you call your Congressmen.
Better climate bills:
Larsen Bill H.R. 1337 — America’s Energy Security Trust Fund Act of 2009
Van Hollen Bill H.R. 1862: — Cap and Dividend Act of 2009
Read these two bills, they are better than the cap and trade bill!
China IS studying carbon tax ideas, despite what Newt Claims.
CSPAN energy meetings can be found here. (Look under “Energy”). There were 3 days of debate and discussion in April, starring Al Gore and Steven Chu and Lisa Jackson and many others.
The sad melted Bolivian glacier story is here. It lasted 18,000 years… and mere mortals finished it off.
Music at end by John Doe, The Losing Kind
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FN05 / Burn Unit Part 2
The latest science on climate change, as presented before the U.S. Senate environmental and public works committee, one of our new “Burn Units”. (my term). The planet is burning up and our government is ready to get to work to save the patient.
This is part two, only available on Futurism Now.
The latest science on climate change, as presented before the U.S. Senate environmental and public works committee, one of our new “Burn Units”. The Planet is burning and our government is ready to get to work. Senator Barbara Boxer shows what she knows, and your host does a lot more commentary than she intended.
This episodes starts with a bang; or more accurately, with Congressman Ed Markey giving his speech at Powershift09. What a tour de force! Then it continues with the scientist commentary and discussion with the Senate panel on the environment and public works about climate change and what to expect. Dr. Happer makes the interesting argument that we might be reverting to the Mesozoic Era, but the early proto-primates back then did just fine! He inferred that if it was good enough for the squirrels of the Mesozoic, it should be good enough for us. (What a bunch of ingrates we are to disagree. I mean, think of the warmth of the tropics…. in Canada.)
Comments continue with scientist Howard Frumkin, Director, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry . . . . . and William Happer PhD of Princeton, Senator Inhofe himself and Barbara Boxer, his official climate nemesis.
Dr. Happer is a professor in the Department of Physics at Princeton University and former Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy from 1990 to 1993 during the first Bush administration. He is affiliated with the ultra-conservative Exxon-funded George Marshall Institute.
For better or worse, this is my most comment-filled episode so far. I’m already fed up with the Denialists! If you have comments or questions, please email them.
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FN05 / Burn Unit pt. 1
This is a presentation of the latest science on climate change, as presented before the U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works committee, one of our new “Burn Units”. The planet is burning up and our government is ready to get to work.
This is part one, and part two will only be on here on this site. This podcast starts with a message about PowerShift09 from scientist James Hansen.
Here are the facts: this is the only planet we have, so let’s all work together to solve this climate problem. It truly is a crisis — more so than the banking crisis, but the government keeps bailing out banks while keeping action on global warming a lower priority. If there is any fire to put out, it’s climate change.
On February 4 2009 Energy Secretary Stephen Chu told the Los Angeles Times:
“I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” he said. ‘We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California,” He sees education as a means to combat this threat.
The testimony Hansen gave to the House Ways & Means Committee is available at
this site (pdf)
Much of the Senate hearing is played in this episode, but it was very long so I’m splitting it in two. The Full Committee was titled, “Update on the Latest Global Warming Science.” I didn’t see any major American media cover this, and it should have been big news. After all, this is the latest science on climate change, straight from the scientists. More of the scientists will appear in part II — Part I contains the Senate panel’s member comments and the statements of two of the scientists, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC, PhD, and Christopher Field PhD, Director, Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford University, Co-chair of Working Group II (continued in part II)
Climate change is the biggest threat to life on this planet, and I can’t stand by and watch it happen while our mainstream media treats it like no big deal, certainly less of a big deal than banks collapsing, so I’m asking people to spread the word. Our media is once again letting us down and even worse, treating this like a debatable political issue, which it absolutely is not.
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