hansen?guest: is about the calamities that our children and grandchildren face if we stay on business as usual, but it is also about the actions we could take that have many other advantages in terms of facing off our addiction to fossil fuel. but what i show is that we are not taking that path. the government talks about such a path, but it is green wash. if you look at the actual emissions and how they are changing, if you look at the plant for unconventional fossil fuels, you realize that they are not actually on that path. people are going to have to stand upon if they are interested in the future that their children and grandchildren will face, and therefore do have to tell the government they will have to be more honest about this. -- and they will have to tell the government they will have to be more honest about this. host: first,, good morning. caller: i would just like to point ..out of that people who deny climate change, for years we polluted our water and look what that did. why

hansen was nearly alone back then. but today he's brought the vast majority of the scientific community to his side. we are changing our climate, he says, and are risking a different planet. he rejects nearly all of the skeptics' points. from moderate estimates -- >> we're talking about several meters of sea level rise if west antarctica begins to go unstable. >> -- to computer modeling. >> that's another big misconception. the computer models are helpful, but they are not the primary source of information. it's the earth's history that tells us with the most accuracy and the most reliability what the climate sensitivity is. we have measurements of the atmosphere composition. very precise from the bubbles of air trapped in the ice sheets as a function of time over the last 700,000 years. >> climate science is clearly complicated and often controversial. both sides of the debate know that. for jim hansen, that makes this situation all the more pressing. >> the nature of science, as you say, on the one hand this and on t

hansen?guest: is about the calamities that our children and grandchildren face if we stay on business as usual, but it is also about the actions we could take that have many other advantages in terms of facing off our addiction to fossil fuel. but what i show is that we are not taking that path. the government talks about such a path, but it is green wash. if you look at the actual emissions and how they are changing, if you look at the plant for unconventional fossil fuels, you realize that they are not actually on that path. people are going to have to stand upon if they are interested in the future that their children and grandchildren will face, and therefore do have to tell the government they will have to be more honest about this. -- and they will have to tell the government they will have to be more honest about this. host: first,, good morning. caller: i would just like to point ..out of that people who deny climate change, for years we polluted our water and look what that did. why

ken hansen wrote to me from mesquite, nevada, a town on the border of nevada and utah. he has problems and parts of his feet have been amputated. he can't go to the doctor because he makes too much to qualify for medicaid and too little to afford private insurance. i share with the senate exactly what ken wrote me." i'm very frustrated because it seems my only hope is that i die very soon. i can't afford to stay alive." end of quote. that's why this bill will expand medicaid to cover people like ken from mesquite, nevada. we're caught in the middle. i'm voting yes, because when someone tells me his only hope is to die, i think we have to take a close look at that. i can't look away. i cannot possibly do nothing. a man by the name of mike tracy lives in north las vegas, nevada. his 26-year-old son has been an insulin-dependent diabetic since he was a baby. the insurance mike's son gets through work won't cover his treatments and the tracys can't afford to buy insurance on their own. but their problems are about more than money. since they couldn't afford to treat his dia

john hansen is grain manager at the local farmers cooperative society. >> this community is fairly optimistic. you may find people in different parts of the country a little bit more pessimistic, but people here are pretty much... will hunker down, as they say out here in the west and get through the tough times. so when the good times are there, things are a lot better.- > reporter: it hasn't hurt that corn prices reached record highs in the preceding two years, due in part to government subsidies and high global demand for grains and ethanol. good years allowed many farmers to save up. and that's important in a county where 97% of the land is used for agriculture, and in a state where one in six jobs is tied to that industry. through 2008 and into 2009, as the recession deepened and the rest of the economy continued to shed jobs at a breath-taking rate, employment remained pretty stable in tractor country. even now, here in sioux center, iowa, unemployment runs about half the national average. a drive through neighborhoods surrounding the small downtown reveal a prosperous community. homes

host: james hansen is in houston, the director of the directorgoddard -- the director of the nasa goddard institute'. and he is the author of "storms of my grandchildren" we appreciate your time. guest: i should add that my opinions are my personal ones, not those of the government. host: we appreciate your time and we will see you back here tomorrow morning. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] . . no votes expected today. live coverage on c-span. a legislative business begins at noon. the senate is starting their eighth day of debate on health care. a number of amendments are expected today in bonn by sinister nelson of -- those are expected after 3:00 p.m. eastern trade watch live coverage on [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] -- c-span2. ben bernanke is speaking at the economic club of washington. you can watch that live on line and listen on c-span radio. today is the anniversary of the japanese attacks on pearl harbor. the national parks service has been collecting stories from survivor

host: mary anne hansen jr. -- santa rosa, california, on our democrats line.aller: i can't help think about dick cheney and how he has been talking about how barack obama has not been on the watch and stuff. he has had eight years to have taken care of this problem and it didn't get fixed on his watch it so they should be blaming barack for anything going on now. they are really small things in some ways. they should have been taken care of. dick cheney -- he had such a big mouth before. so, ok, that's it. host: lewiston, michigan, next on our independent line. caller: first off, have the new year. a couple of things that are wrong. first off, it is not a political issue, not a partisan issue, but a people issue. there were people on board the airplane. the problem did not start in america, it started over in amsterdam. sorry it interrupted the president's golf game but two things he did not say -- did not say he made a call to the leaders of yemen, did not say he made a call to anyone in amsterdam to find out what was going on. he should have at least said, w

ken hansen from mess quit, nevada wrote to me.rt problems and parts of his feet have been amputated. he can't go to the doctor because he can't afford private insurance and can't qualify for medicaid. i share with the senate exactly what ken wroted. i'm fraus straightened because my only hope is that idea soon. i can't afford to stay a live. end of quote. that's why this bill will expand to cover people like ken from nevada. caught in the middle. i'm voting yes because when someone tells me his only hope is to die. we have to take a close look at that. i can't look away. i cannot possibly do nothing. man by the name of mike tracy lives in north las vegas, nevada. his son has been an independent diabetic since he was a baby. his insurance from work won't cover his treatments. his families are more than just about money. since they could about ford to treat they're son's diabetes it developed into a disease called ats ons and they can't afford to treat it either. this can be fatal. mike wrote be two weeks ago i quote, i don't know w