Is climate change a military problem?
From time to time, tidal flooding soaks portions of the US Naval Academy grounds in Annapolis, Md., where service members have studied since its founding in 1845. As sea levels rise and extreme weather strikes more often due to climate change, however, flooding could affect the site so frequently that it becomes unusable by the end of the century.
outlined in a report unveiled Wednesday by The Center for Climate & Security, with endorsements from retired US military officers and former national security officials. The bipartisan group of supporters called upon the current and coming administrations to anticipate the global conflicts that climate change could cause, and to protect the more than 1,700 coastal sites maintained by the American military across the globe.
鈥淭here isn鈥檛 a region in the world where rising seas don鈥檛 affect our military readiness and operations, and complicate our ability to do our job,鈥� retired US Coast Guard Vice Adm. Rob Parker said in a statement released with the report.
Even certain current conflicts can be attributed, in part, to climate, as US Secretary of State John Kerry noted during a speech last fall at Old Dominion University.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a coincidence that , the country experienced its worst drought on record,鈥� Mr. Kerry said. 鈥淎s many as 1.5 million people migrated from Syria鈥檚 farms to its cities, intensifying the political unrest that was just beginning to roil and boil in the region.鈥�
Alongside the report on rising seas, the Washington-based think tank released a national security 鈥溾�� for the next president and a signed by 25 former officials.
鈥淭hese reports make it crystal clear. To national security and defense leaders, there鈥檚 absolutely nothing political about climate change,鈥� the think tank鈥檚 co-presidents, Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell, said in a written statement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a security risk, it makes other security risks worse, and we need to do something big about it.鈥�
Since the reports drew such bipartisan support from so many former officials, they could increase future pressure on the White House to dedicate more resources to climate change, which has not been a top priority on the 2016 campaign trail.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has advocated for clean energy and fracking regulation, while her Republican opponent Donald Trump has said global warming is a concept 鈥渃reated by the and for the Chinese鈥� to hurt American business.
Recommendations in the reports include the creation of a cabinet-level official to focus on domestic climate change and related security issues.
The reports and their endorsements failed to impress James Lewis, a senior vice president and program director with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who suggested the military has more pressing threats to address.
鈥淲e tend to militarize everything,鈥� Dr. Lewis tells 海角大神. While climate change is an indisputable fact and fixing it would be worthwhile, it鈥檚 not a Department of Defense mission, he adds.
鈥淧eople have gotten used to tagging the word 鈥榮ecurity鈥� to any issue we have,鈥� Mr. Lewis adds.聽鈥淭rying to cram everything into the security framework means we end up being less effective in addressing things.鈥�
But the officials who spoke in support of the reports contend they have no choice but to engage.
鈥淏ecause we define our interests globally, ,鈥� retired US Army Gen. Charles Jacoby Jr. said during an interview with The Weather Channel. 鈥淢any conflicts throughout our history have been based on resource competition. Increasingly in the future we鈥檒l be defining some of our national security interests in those resource contests.鈥�
This report includes material from Reuters.
