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Biggest national security threat?
By maudeaster on 2014-07-03 07:39:55
2Our news is full of the crises in Iraq, Syria and across Africa. Last month the
Military Advisory Board, a group of senior retired generals and admirals, issued a call to action focusing on the larger
national security picture that should be framing current policy debates about how we respond to these conflicts — but sadly is
hardly discussed. First, they looked at the underlying cause of the conflicts: “The projected impacts of climate change...will
serve as catalysts for instability and conflict. In Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, we are already seeing how the impacts of
extreme weather, such as prolonged drought and flooding — and the resulting food shortages, desertification, population
dislocation and mass migration, and sea level rise — are posing security challenges to these regions’ governments.” Then
their report, National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change
(http://www.cna.org/sites/default/files/MAB_2014.pdf), called for a different path forward, expressing “growing concern
over the lack of comprehensive action by both the United States and the international community to address the full
spectrum of climate change challenges.” They pointed to trends that had increased since they had issued an earlier warning
in 2007: an increase in global population of more than half a billion people; increased
settlement in urban areas and coastal regions; increasing pressure on water, food and energy resources; damage to essential
infrastructure from extreme temperatures; more dispersed geopolitical power; and increased global economic and financial
interdependence. “The national security risks of projected climate change are as serious as any challenges we have faced.”
Iran, Syria and Africa are all severely impacted by climate-induced drought and resource depletion. Instead of promoting
short-term, ineffective military responses -- like the current proposals to flood conflict areas with weapons sales and
bombing runs, Congress needs to pay attention to this report and do some forward-thinking. I want to hear from Congress
demands that the US pour its resources instead into the real national security challenge: shifting from a carbon-based
economy at home and creating a global treaty strong enough to prevent additional climate destruction. That’s why I am
21 - when world leaders will be meeting for a UN summit on the climate crisis. The US, refusing to ratify the earlier UN
Kyoto climate treaty and failing to enact strong carbon-reducing measures at home, has so far been an obstacle to global
progress. We need to be in New York in huge numbers to show US and global policy makers that ordinary Americans are
demanding strong action on climate disruption — that’s the path to real national security for ourselves and for others. Hope
you’ll sign up today to come to the march, too!
