Tag: fossil fuels

A report from the U.S. Department of Defense Monday warns that climate change is a “threat multiplier” which can worsen national security problems such as terrorism and infectious disease spread, yet they, and the rest of us, seem positively determined to NOT actually tackle this enemy, at least not in any way that might prevent this most serious threat.

The military has long shown that it understands the realities of climate change. It has previously released reports warning of altered natural disaster response and drought, which will lead to conflicts over food and water. The Pentagon has also released an entire report on its strategy to address Arctic melting. Yet they are still focused on mitigating the impacts of climate change, while totally ignoring the subject of preventing it, which of course would require discussing the largest elephant in the global room to ever have lived: fossil fuels.

We desperately need leaders who are actually willing to lead on this issue. They are few and far between. Northern California’s freshman congressman, Jared Huffman, has emerged as one of those brave leaders, and has already been called a leading voice for the environment in Congress.  During his tenure in the California legislature, he authored and passed bills to protect oceans and water quality, implement clean energy alternatives, promote green chemistry practices and reduce toxic chemical pollution.

The U.S. House of Representatives, however, has actively acted to prevent anyone from addressing environmental and energy problems. Back in May, the House passed an amendment sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) that would have forbidden the Pentagon from using any of its funding to address the national security impacts of climate change. We need more Jareds and fewer Davids, that much is obvious. This from Climate Progress: The 20-page “2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap” said the U.S. Department of Defense is “already beginning to see” some of the impacts of sea level rise, changing precipitation patterns, rising global temperatures, and increased extreme weather — four key symptoms of global warming. These symptoms have the potential to “intensify the challenges of global instability, hunger, poverty, and conflict” and will likely lead to “food and water shortages, pandemic disease, disputes over refugees and resources, and destruction by natural disasters in regions across the globe,” the report said. Because of uncertainty surrounding just how bad these problems will be in the future, the report calls for a proactive defense strategy — one which will require “thinking ahead and planning for a wide range of contingencies.”

“Climate change will affect the Department of Defense’s ability to defend the nation and poses immediate risks to U.S. national security,” the report reads. “Weather has always affected military operations, and as the climate changes, the way we execute operations may be altered or constrained.”