Nuclear power advocates challenge state Climate Action Council plan

James E. Hansen is a charter member of SCGI and is widely considered to be the leading voice in the field of climate change. After 46 years in government service, Hansen stepped down from his position as director (for 31 years) of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in 2013. Jim has also served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. He continues his prolific research and writing on the topic of climate change and proposals for dealing with the problem effectively.

After graduate school, Hansen continued his work with radiative transfer models and attempting to understand the Venusian atmosphere. This naturally led to the same computer codes being used to understand the Earth's atmosphere. He used these codes to study the effects that aerosols and trace gases have on the climate. Hansen has also contributed to the further understanding of the Earth's climate through the development and use of global climate models.

Hansen is best known for his research in the field of climatology, his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in 1988 that helped raise broad awareness of global warming, and his advocacy of action to limit the impacts of climate change.

ALBANY — A group of advocates, including a former NASA director, wants the state’s Climate Action Council to include nuclear power initiatives in its scoping plan for a carbon-free environment.

State leaders adopted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which calls for New York to have 100 percent zero-emissions electricity by 2040.

Climate scientist and former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute James Hansen commended the legislation but critiqued the state’s initial scoping plan this week, arguing that it gives “short shrift to our most reliable, proven means of decarbonization – nuclear power.”

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