IN the USA during 1939 the possibility of uranium fission fuelling atomic bombs was known, causing grave concern for physicist Leo Szilard that Nazi Germany may be the first to develop atomic weapons.
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Politicians and the general public, having little understanding of atomic fission, responded with ridicule and scepticism.
Szilard turned to his friend Albert Einstein for support and together they prepared a letter for President Roosevelt.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.
The letter reached the President on October 11, resulting in the appointment of a "Uranium Committee" and a grant of only $6000.
For the next two years, official scepticism continued to stall US research efforts and it was not until August 1942 that the "Manhattan Project" began in earnest.
Alarmingly, we witness a parallel situation here, with Australia reacting ineffectively and sceptically to global warming, unlike most major European countries.
Climate science is being deliberately disregarded by groups of politicians and those with vested interests in coal-fired electricity plants, who together are stalling critical progress on this issue.
Ian Dunlop, a former international oil, gas and coal industry executive, recently wrote: “Climate change is occurring fast and extensively, largely caused by human carbon emissions, with increasing evidence that extremely dangerous ‘tipping points’ in the Arctic, Antarctic, the oceans and elsewhere are being activated, probably irreversibly”.
With the UN Summit on Climate to occur later this year, the French ambassador to Australia, Christophe Lecourtier, said: "Keeping average air temperature increases below two degrees in the coming years is a commitment now made by 196 countries whom wish to leave a liveable planet for the next generation".
Alarmingly, Australia is not one of the countries committed to the two-degree goal, even though projections by the Australian Academy of Science show we may reach the two-degree "tipping point" by the year 2040; only 25 years from now!
This is not alarmist propaganda but rather well-foundered climate science based on the basic laws of physics, direct measurement, and empirical observations of nature.
Is the seriousness of climate change going to be accepted by politicians and the general public only after we experience devastating extreme weather events when the economic costs become obvious and crippling?
The likelihood of an atomic bomb being in the hands of Nazi Germany during World War II shook America to the core and dissolved all scepticism.
Is a similar awakening what we too need to shake us from our lethargy, to remove scepticism in favour of the science, and to unite us as one in the fight against accelerating global warming?
On our current path, nature will become a greater foe globally than Nazi Germany during World War II; so it is time for us to dismiss any scepticism of man-made global warming and accept the science.
Each decade lost will prove critical to our economic future.
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