NASA Scientist Hansen Calls for “Vociferous Objection” to New Coal

We’re talking a lot about coal these days, and with good reason. We’re experiencing what’s been dubbed the “coal rush,” where the industry has gone gangbusters on a seeming window of opportunity. The same thing has happened with other technologies, especially nukes, natural gas, and now ethanol.

NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen has taken special notice of this issue, calling for a moratorium on all greenhouse gas polluting coal plants. Hansen has just repeated his call, emphasizing the magnitude of the problem, just as a recent article calculated that

The Campus Climate Challenge (CCC)…calls for all high school and college campuses in the US to go carbon neutral…If the challenge were met, the CO2 emissions from just four medium-sized coal-fired power plants each year would negate the CCC’s entire effort. [Editor's Note: This figure looks to be off by an order of magnitude and that it would take 40 medium coal plants, however the point still stands.]

That’s a pretty big problem when there are 150+ proposed coal plants on the table. Hansen is particularly attuned to the role young people will play in this struggle (and he will be appearing at the March to ReEnergize Iowa). Hansen says

The need to involve people, especially young people, in vociferous objection to the damage that such coal plants are doing to their and the entire planet’s future. It seems to me that we have not done a good job of making young people aware of the matter. How can we communicate with them???

Hansen recommends his most recent article. See this Gristmill post for more on Hansen’s analysis of Old King Coal.

Well, let’s not leave the man’s question unanswered!

About Mattie

Mattie is a member of the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition's Steering Committee, an organization he founded at Power Shift 07. He is proud to support a growing statewide network of student groups working for a clean, safe, and just future for all. Mattie originally got involved as a Syracuse University student who saw a pressing need for climate action, later as an Energy Justice Network intern who began to realize the human impacts of coal, and finally as an OSEC organizer committed to building an economy and climate worth fighting for. He also has a degree in women's studies and sociology, is a founding member of the Mountain Justice Spring Break Planning Collective and an intentional community in Columbus, and is the convener of the Energy Action Coalition's Anti-Oppression working group.

2 Responses to “NASA Scientist Hansen Calls for “Vociferous Objection” to New Coal”

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1 Matt Maiorana Aug 1st, 2007 at 2:24 am

Thanks for posting this! James Hansen is quite awesome. And yes, lets rock the youth outreach! Campus outreach, has been amazing so far – but there are a lot of youth who don’t go to college. Society often neglects this demographic, but the youth climate movement can’t and shouldn’t. Global warming is a problem that effects everyone and everyone will be needed to solve it. We need to start thinking of ways to involve those who wouldn’t otherwise care.