Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This year 200 Australian scientists issued a stark warning to the Australian people. In an open letter to the Prime Minister entitled 'Last call on the climate and nuclear twin perils', the scientists drew attention to the recent statement of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which said:

Over the course of 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come effectively to grips with humanity’s most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change …

The letter goes on to say:

These twin perils are not unrelated. As the full horror of climate change unfolds, conflict among nations and peoples over diminishing liveable environments and disrupted food and water supplies will increase. Nuclear holocaust is a plausible component of a climate change endgame.

The scientists want an answer on two key questions:

First. Why is the government continuing to promote the mining, combustion and export of coal and other fossil fuels, despite the stern warning by science and the growing calamity of global warming, including the rise in hurricanes and wildfires around the world?

Second. There exist some 14,900 nuclear weapons threatening to be triggered by accident or design, with the probability for such an event growing with time. Why has the government decided not to sign the nuclear weapons ban treaty despite the fatal consequences of these weapons?

They also ask for the Prime Minister to meet with a delegation of the scientists, but, as yet, the Prime Minister has failed to do so. I seek leave to table the letter.

Leave granted.

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