James E Hansen, NASA's climate scientist, has announced his plans to retire so that he can spend more time on activism, reported The New York Times.
According to the Times, Hansen's departure from the space agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan after a 46-year career will "deprive federally sponsored climate research of its best-known public figure."
However, his increased activism could strengthen the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline (used for carrying crude oil from Canada to the U.S.Gulf Coast) and increase pressure on the U.S. legislators to enact legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
The scientist announced his retirement through an email stating he intended to spend more time on "science, drawing attention to the implications for young people, and making clear what science says needs to be done."
A national grass-roots campaign led by Bill McKibben supported and praised Hansen's decision saying the scientist has always been willing to speak the truth bluntly. McKibben said that in 1988 Hansen bluntly told the Congress that the time had come "to stop waffling so much and say the planet was warming."
Even at the age of 72, Hansen said he feels a moral obligation to step up his activism in his remaining years.
"If we burn even a substantial fraction of the fossil fuels, we guarantee there's going to be unstoppable changes" in the climate of the earth, he said. "We're going to leave a situation for young people and future generations that they may have no way to deal with."
