BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Climate expert James E. Hansen is calling on today’s youth to reign in global warming.
Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Hansen will deliver the address for Illinois Wesleyan University’s annual Founders’ Day Convocation at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 19 in Westbrook Auditorium (1210 N. Park St., Bloomington). The evening event will cap a day of Founders’ Day activities, honoring the University’s founding in 1850, and is free and open to the public.
Hansen’s speech, titled “Climate Tipping Points: The Threat to the Planet,” will address the nature of the global warming problem that he sees as a potential “perfect storm” – an accelerated disaster out of humanity’s control. Hansen believes young people may provide a “tipping point” to draw needed attention to global warming.
One of the nation’s foremost researchers on climate change, Hansen has been called upon to testify before Congress on global warming and has published more than 50 articles in scientific journals and reviews on the subject. For decades, he has advocated an open dialogue on global warming, and been critical of both the Clinton and Bush administrations’ stances on climate changes.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Hansen has twice received the NASA Presidential Rank for Meritorious Executive Award. He has been awarded the John Heinz Environment Award in 2001, the Roger Revelle Medal from the American Geophysical Union in 2002, the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal from the World Wildlife Fund in 2006 and the Leo Szilard Lectureship Award from the American Physical Society in 2007.