Perhaps now they'll listen: Pentagon adds climate change to national security debate

Filed under: Etc., Green Daily

The Pentagon is taking a serious look at how global climate change will dramatically affect the national security of the United States in the coming decades. The Pentagon’s reasoning is as follows: climate change is going to be about the biggest SNAFU imaginable and could “topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions,” in the next two or three decades, the New York Times writes. The biggest danger areas: the Mid-East, South and SE Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Another potential danger zone: the Arcitc, where the melting ice cap is creating a new shipping channel “that must be defended.” The military’s response includes all sorts of war “games” exploring possible outcomes of droughts, floods and food shortages as well as studying things like alternative fuels.

This is not a new angle. In 2007, 11 retired senior generals issued a 63-page report that found that global warming “presents significant national security challenges to the United States.” For some reason, James Woolsey was not interviewed for the article, even though he has been making the “national security = greener cars” case for years. We’re sure not everyone will agree, but we think this is a good topic to remember the next time we’re about to argue if EVs or hydrogen cars are the best way forward.

[Source: New York Times]
Photo by DVIDSHUB. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

Perhaps now they’ll listen: Pentagon adds climate change to national security debate originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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