“Climate change is and will be a significant threat to our national security and in a larger sense to life on earth as we know it to be.”
Gordon R. Sullivan, retired US Army General and former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The problem
Months before the war in Ukraine, a headline caught my attention: “Climate change is a risk to national security, the Pentagon says”. At the time I had a lot of worries about climate change, but this wasn’t one of them.
When I dug into it, I learned that In October, 2021 the Pentagon released a report called: The Department of Defense Climate Risk Analysis. It gave an assessment of our situation, and outlined how the DoD plans to address the risks.
According the the report, “to keep the nation secure, we must tackle the existential threat of climate change. The unprecedented scale of wildfires, floods, droughts, typhoons, and other extreme weather events of recent months and years have damaged our installations and bases, constrained force readiness and operations, and contributed to instability around the world”.
A threat multiplier
Climate change is considered a threat multiplier, because it makes other problems worse. For instance, it disrupts access to basic needs – food, water, energy – and increases the number of humanitarian crises. Scarcity of resources leads to conflict both within and between countries, placing a higher demand on our military.
Climate migration
Climate migration is happening all over the world, and is projected to worsen. Because when people are unable to farm and/or sustain a living in a region heavily impacted by drought or flooding, the region becomes unstable and people are forced to move. This is impacting the US already at the Southern border. Some of the refugees are climate migrants from Central America leaving an unstable and dangerous region.
Strain on the military
Another threat is damage to military bases. Extreme weather has already caused billions in damages at military installations, and is expected to accelerate. In addition to being costly, this impacts readiness. Likewise, the National Guard is increasingly involved in fighting forest fires and assisting after climate-related disasters.
Energy security
Since the war in Ukraine began, we are all acutely aware of the international demands for energy, and our interdependence on fossil fuels. Many see this as a catalyst to increase our renewable energy supply, which will improve our economic and national security.
In summary, the report says “climate change touches most of what this Department [of Defense] does, and this threat will continue to have worsening implications for U.S. national security.”
The solution
These problems will intensify until we get to net zero and begin to reverse course.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.