In a major strategy review to be presented to Congress today, the US military is expected to rank global climate change as a destabilizing force to national and international security, and will direct the Pentagon to include global warming in its long-term strategic planning.
While the review reportedly will not go so far as to cite climate change as a probable cause of conflict, it does view global warming as an accelerant, “placing burdens on civilian and military institutions around the world.”
Part of the Pentagon’s concern has to do with the increased burden of supporting large scale humanitarian and/or peacekeeping missions around the world. More directly, more than 30 US bases would be at risk should sea levels rise.
As encouraging as the Pentagon’s acknowledgment of climate change is its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from non-combat operations by 34 percent over the next ten years, announced last week.
While recent press reports have highlighted the difficulty of passing comprehensive climate change legislation in the face of continued economic difficulties and high unemployment in the US, it’s worth noting that today’s Pentagon review adds significant weight to growing concern over global warming in many other government sectors.
Last year, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established a center for gathering information on climate change, and reestablished a program to share satellite data with scientists.
The US House of Representatives passed a climate change bill last spring, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, with the backing of the courts, determined that it can and will regulate greenhouse gas emissions on its own if the House bill does not become law.
The Obama administration pledged cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at the Copenhagen conference last December, and in January’s State of the Union, once again address urged the US Senate to act on climate change as the House has done.
Independently, the administration has charged government agencies to substantially cut their own greenhouse gas emissions, look for ways to reduce waste, and pursue alternative energy solutions. The economic recovery act enacted last spring included the largest investment in alternative fuels in US history.
Last year, dozens of major corporations publicly disassociated themselves from the US Chamber of Commerce for its opposition to taking action on climate change, and many have begun actively planning for the effects climate change will have on their businesses.
Collectively, and in spite of stiff opposition and competing priorities, a considerable amount of officially sanctioned momentum in favor of climate change action has been building in the past 18 months or so.
Today’s Pentagon review may well serve as a momentum multiplier, since many of those opposed to taking action on climate change are also among the staunchest supporters of the military.
