James Hansen's role in the debate about climate change started after studying the atmosphere of Venus with NASA. Hansen went to the University of Iowa and studied under Professor Van Allan, who taught him about climates, which led to his work with NASA, but it was not until he began to realize that the climate of his own planet was undergoing a serious and dramatic change that he really entered into the climate change debate. Hansen discovered that greenhouse gases on Earth were responsible for elevating the Earth's temperature to a dangerous level. He became particularly critical of the coal industry, whose pollutants into the atmosphere were viewed as very damaging to the protective layer.
Hansen is more than just a scientist, however; he is also an activist and has been arrested for protesting outside the White House. Thus, Hansen became involved in the climate change debate after first studying the atmosphere of Venus and noting the sulfuric conditions of that planet's atmosphere. Then it came to his attention that the atmosphere of Earth was much more interesting and relevant because it was ours and things were happening on our planet that are effectively harming the atmosphere. Thus, as an informed scientist,...
He looks at data from NASA, which illustrates the change in temperature of the globe over the past 100 years. This is how Shepherd disproves zombie theories -- using empirical data, hard facts, and gathered evidence. Shepherd also points that we cannot "cherry pick" the data, which some do in order to "disprove" climate change. What Shepherd emphasizes is that one must look at the data objectively. What he does in terms of the "hockey stick" graph regarding the planet's temperature is show that beginning with the Industrial Revolution, when so many unhealthy elements began being released into the atmosphere by Big Industry, the planet has been warming…
