Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters

by Steven E. Koonin

Thus, while it is often invoked as an example, a “Manhattan Project” isn’t a very apt or useful way of thinking about energy change. The real Manhattan Project in the early 1940s produced a few specific atomic “gadgets” for a single customer (the US military); it did not aspire to transform a large system already embedded throughout society. It also didn’t have to compete with an existing capability, while we already have perfectly serviceable ways of providing electricity and fuels. The Manhattan Project was carried out in secret, so public opinion and acceptance wasn’t an issue (although it turned out that spies let the Soviet Union in on the secret). And finally, it had an almost unconstrained budget (it was a national wartime priority), while those aiming to produce alternatives to our current energy system have to worry not only about their costs, but also about consumer energy prices.