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Friday, May 16th, 2014

Climate Change Is A Growing National Security Concern, Say Retired Military Leaders

Author:     JAMES GERKEN
Source:     The Huffington Post
Publication Date:     05/14/2014 2:59 pm EDT
 Link: Climate Change Is A Growing National Security Concern, Say Retired Military Leaders
Stephan:   It seems to be coming as a surprise that climate change has military and security implications. I find that quite extraordinary. The oldest treaty in the world is a treaty resulting from conflict over water rights. The word rival comes from the Latin Rivalis, which means to take water from another's stream. It is a measure of how deranged the Republican Party has become that while they claim to be for strong national security, they unanimously reject the science of climate change.

A report released Tuesday from an advisory group of retired U.S. military leadership echoes the findings of other recent reports on climate change: It is real, it is already happening and it poses major threats to the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The federally funded Center for Naval Analyses and its Military Advisory Board, a group of 16 retired three- and four-star generals and admirals, affirm in the report that climate events like flooding, prolonged drought and rising sea levels, and the subsequent population dislocation and food insecurity, will serve as “catalysts for instability and conflict” in vulnerable regions of the world.

“We no longer have the option to wait and see,” former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta write in a foreword to the report, which they describe as a “bipartisan call to action.”

The report laments the politicization of climate change and continued inaction from Congress on the issue. “Politically charged debate has silenced sound public discourse,” it reads in part.

“We hope this report will both influence public opinion as well as influence national security policymakers and leaders,” retired Navy rear admiral and co-author David Titley told The Huffington Post. “We are speaking out […]

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