May I request that Eccentric readers do one small thing before reading further? Go online and Google, "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan, and then please spend 3 minutes on YouTube looking at his enchanting video that reminds us of our most precious home – Planet Earth.

I look at this to reflect on where we truly are, "on our Pale Blue Dot", and what we need to do in order to preserve our most cherished possession, together with our loved ones. The two are indeed symbiotic, in both the biological and philosophical sense – we are mutually interactive with our environment.

The image of "the only home we've ever known" was taken by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990, 4 billion miles away from "the earth, where we make our stand". At this distance, our planet is only 0.12 pixel in size. We are spending billions on national defense while our planet is threatened by the undeniable scientific evidence of climate change.

So the question is, will the international community be able to mobilize resources to counter this threat before the cascading effects destabilize highly vulnerable regions and tens, and likely hundreds, of millions of people, including large centers of the urban population in the United States? We walked away from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and without United States leadership and investment in countering the effects of climate change then our future generations are in deep trouble.

Let me provide some key scientific evidence:

The glaciers in Antarctica and the Himalaya mountains are melting and these effects alone will significantly impact our planet. The melting "Thwaites Glacier" in Antarctica is the size of Florida and if it melts completely scientists estimate that global ocean levels will rise by 2 feet.

January 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded in Australia, with 2017 and 2018 the hottest years ever recorded.

Rising temperatures are estimated to melt one-third of the glaciers in the Hindu Kush region of the Himalayas.

National Security and climate change are intimately linked. The US Department of Defense includes climate change in its threat data and analytics, while the current White House challenges the global scientific community.

The White House is at total variance with our nation's Director of National Intelligence who has stated that "global environmental and ecological degradation, as well as climate change, are likely to fuel competition for resources, economic distress, and social discontent." The US military and intelligence community are being therefore totally responsible. Not so the White House.

What is clearly required is international commitment and agreement.

The United States' scientific legitimacy is currently being called into question across the globe with the appointment of William Happer by the President's Director of Science and Technology Policy, Kelvin Droegemeier, to head a climate change panel. Scientists throughout the world are appalled. Mr. Happer is on the record as stating that carbon dioxide is, "a benefit to the world". Of course, CO2 has certain benefits that are well known, but it's about the increasing quantity, distribution, and environmental effects.

I obtained my Ph.D. from a university that produced Maxwell's Equations, several Nobel Laureates, let alone the lady DNA co-discoverer (Rosalind Franklin), and the more recent discoverer of the Higgs Boson and, like many around the world, I am, very simply, horrified. It's corruption in a new and frightening guise, trying to fit the facts to support an unsupportable position and policy.

Let me conclude by reminding readers of some of Carl Sagan's memorable quotes, (1934-1996, Ph.D. University of Chicago, and distinguished astrophysicist and cosmologist at Cornell, Harvard, and UC Berkeley).

He characterized our planet as," A mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam", and, "A lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark". I for one identify with this wonderful departed human being who said that we need all the "help to save us from ourselves". We all indeed have to stand together and, "Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known". Drastic change is needed. The young people of our fine country are leading the way, with an energetic commitment to address climate change, and maybe providing the older generation with a new oath, "To support, and defend, the Pale Blue Dot".