{"id":574717,"date":"2010-05-21T10:50:10","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T14:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/?p=25692"},"modified":"2010-05-21T10:50:10","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T14:50:10","slug":"climate-change-the-new-national-security-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/574717","title":{"rendered":"Climate change: The new national security challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/em>On August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush famously received an intelligence briefing titled, \u201cBin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.\u201d Thirty-six days later, al Qaeda terrorists tragically turned threat into reality.<\/p>\n

Today, scientists tell us we have a 10-year window \u2014 if even that \u2014 before catastrophic climate change becomes inevitable and irreversible.<\/p>\n

This is our intelligence briefing \u2014 it tells us the threat is real and time is not on our side.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The national security threat posed by unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions is great (see \u201cNYT: Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security<\/a>\u201d and “Quadrennial Defense Review Should Spark Interagency Climate Conversation<\/a>“),\u00a0 The threat is so clearcut that even the Bush Administration\u2019s top intelligence experts were raising the alarm (see \u201cThe moving Fingar writes<\/a>\u201c).<\/p>\n

And that’s why 33 generals and admirals announced support for the climate bill last month, asserting “Climate change is making the world a more dangerous place” and “threatening America’s security<\/a>.”\u00a0 Now, Sen. John Kerry has written a compelling op-ed<\/a> explaining the grave national security threat posed by climate change and thus the urgent need to take action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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If Vice President Cheney can argue that even a 1 percent chance of a terrorist attack is 100 percent justification for preemptive action, then, surely, when scientists tell us that climate change is nearly a 100 percent certainty we should join in an all-out effort to make ourselves safe.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake \u2014 this is an American national security challenge.<\/p>\n

Climate change injects a new major source of chaos, tension and human insecurity into an already volatile world. It threatens to bring more famine and drought, worse pandemics, more natural disasters, more resource scarcity, and staggering human displacement. In an interconnected world, that endangers all of us.<\/p>\n

Anyone who doubts the threat should talk to the 11 retired American admirals and generals who warned in 2007, \u201cClimate change can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world, and it presents significant national-security challenges for the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their final national security analysis, the security planners in the Bush Administration recognized climate change among key trends that will shape U.S. defense policy in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Just last week, former United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander William Fallon warned that, left unchecked, climate change will \u201cbe significantly destabilizing to our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni put it simply: \u201cWe will pay for this one way or another. We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we\u2019ll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or, we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heed the warnings of the National Intelligence Council \u2014 the U.S. intelligence community\u2019s think tank \u2014 which concluded \u201cglobal climate change will have wide-ranging implications for U.S. national-security interests over the next 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowhere is the connection between climate and security more direct than in South Asia, home to al Qaeda.<\/p>\n

Scientists now warn the Himalayan glaciers, which supply fresh water to a billion people in India and Pakistan, will face severe impacts from climate change. India\u2019s rivers are not only vital to its agriculture but also critical to its religious practice. Pakistan, for its part, depends on irrigated farming to avoid famine.<\/p>\n

At a moment when our government is scrambling to ratchet down tensions across that strategically vital region, climate change could work powerfully in the opposite direction. Failure to tackle climate change risks much more than a ravaged environment: It risks a much more dangerous world and a gravely threatened America.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, not everyone in Washington appreciates the stakes.<\/p>\n

If a politician completely dismissed or denied the threat of terrorism, he or she would be sent home in the next election. But there are seemingly few political consequences if you dismiss the science or the threat of climate change.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one fact that should awaken every rock-ribbed defense hawk to the stakes: There will always be excuses to wait, but every day that Washington fails to price carbon and embrace clean energy, America sends another $100 million to Iran. That\u2019s not a choice America can afford.<\/p>\n

Last week, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and I unveiled the American Power Act, a comprehensive energy and climate approach that sends the price signal on carbon that the market needs to unleash America\u2019s entrepreneurial energy.<\/p>\n

In 2010, that is the test of a serious policy to combat climate change.<\/p>\n

When our admirals and generals warn that failure to act will put America and the world in danger, it is clearer than ever:\u00a0 This is our August 2001 memo. These are our warnings. The time to act on them is now.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kerry is the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee<\/em><\/p>\n

Related Posts:<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Climate Patriots take up the global warming fight<\/a><\/h4>\n

February 23rd, 2010 | Posted in National Security<\/a> | Edit<\/a> | 11 Comments \u00bb<\/a><\/div>\n

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February 15th, 2010 | Posted in National Security<\/a> | Edit<\/a> | 21 Comments \u00bb<\/a><\/div>\n

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Energy and Global Warming News for February 2: Obama budget creates infrastructure bank, adds $1B for high-speed rail<\/a><\/h4>\n

February 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Climate Progress<\/a> | Edit<\/a> | 4 Comments \u00bb<\/a><\/div>\n


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On August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush famously received an intelligence briefing titled, \u201cBin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.\u201d Thirty-six days later, al Qaeda terrorists tragically turned threat into reality. Today, scientists tell us we have a 10-year window \u2014 if even that \u2014 before catastrophic climate change becomes inevitable and irreversible. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-574717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}