[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H1892-H1893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1610
    RECOGNIZING THE WORLD'S FOREMOST CLIMATOLOGIST, DR. JAMES HANSEN

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

[[Page H1893]]

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the storied career 
of America's foremost climatologist, and the world's, Dr. James Hansen. 
Last week Dr. Hansen retired from his position as head of the NASA 
Goddard Institute for Space Studies. After 46 years at NASA, he's 
leaving the agency to focus his efforts on the political and legal 
efforts to limit greenhouse gases.
  He started his career by working on the atmosphere of the planet 
Venus in the sixties. Luckily for the world, he changed his emphasis to 
the atmosphere of the Earth.
  Dr. Hansen is perhaps known best for his 1988 testimony to the Senate 
committees that helped raise the initial broad awareness of global 
warming across the United States. He sounded the warning bell of the 
effects of climate change, and can be credited with bringing the issue 
to the forefront of the American conscience.
  Dr. Hansen, who fittingly called the proposed building of the 
Keystone XL pipeline akin to the ``lighting of the carbon bomb,'' is 
one of the world's leading advocates of decreased fossil fuel 
consumption.
  While his departure from the Federal climate research community will 
undoubtedly leave a gaping hole in NASA's climate program, I look 
forward to the role Dr. Hansen will take on his retirement as he 
pursues actions to limit emissions and his fight against the 
development of Keystone and other tar sands pipelines.
  The future of our planet rests in the hands of scientists like Dr. 
Hansen, and I ask my colleagues to join me in wishing him the best of 
luck in his retirement. I truly hope he can continue the work that he 
has successfully pursued throughout his storied career in this new 
capacity.

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