WASHINGTON â The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict, a report published Tuesday by a leading government-funded military research organization concluded.
The Center for Naval Analyses Military Advisory Board found that climate change-induced drought in the Middle East and Africa is leading to conflicts over food and water and escalating longstanding regional and ethnic tensions into violent clashes. The report also found that rising sea levels are putting people and food supplies in vulnerable coastal regions like eastern India, Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam at risk and could lead to a new wave of refugees.
In addition, the report predicted that an increase in catastrophic weather events around the world would create more demand for American troops, even as flooding and extreme weather events at home could damage naval ports and military bases.
The report on Tuesday follows a recent string of scientific studies that warn that the effects of climate change are already occurring and that flooding, droughts, extreme storms, food and water shortages and damage to infrastructure will occur in the near future.
In March, the Pentagonâs Quadrennial Defense Review, the agencyâs main public document describing the current doctrine of the United States military, drew a direct link between the effects of global warming â like rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns â and terrorism.
âThese effects are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors abroad, such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability and social tensions â conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence,â the review said.
A scientific report released this week found that global warming has contributed to the melting of a large section of a West Antarctica ice sheet, which could lead to a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more.
Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a vocal skeptic of the established science that greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming, scoffed at the idea that climate change is linked to national security threats.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/u...by-military-researchers.html?hpw&rref=science
The Center for Naval Analyses Military Advisory Board found that climate change-induced drought in the Middle East and Africa is leading to conflicts over food and water and escalating longstanding regional and ethnic tensions into violent clashes. The report also found that rising sea levels are putting people and food supplies in vulnerable coastal regions like eastern India, Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam at risk and could lead to a new wave of refugees.
In addition, the report predicted that an increase in catastrophic weather events around the world would create more demand for American troops, even as flooding and extreme weather events at home could damage naval ports and military bases.
The report on Tuesday follows a recent string of scientific studies that warn that the effects of climate change are already occurring and that flooding, droughts, extreme storms, food and water shortages and damage to infrastructure will occur in the near future.
In March, the Pentagonâs Quadrennial Defense Review, the agencyâs main public document describing the current doctrine of the United States military, drew a direct link between the effects of global warming â like rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns â and terrorism.
âThese effects are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors abroad, such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability and social tensions â conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence,â the review said.
A scientific report released this week found that global warming has contributed to the melting of a large section of a West Antarctica ice sheet, which could lead to a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more.
Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a vocal skeptic of the established science that greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming, scoffed at the idea that climate change is linked to national security threats.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/u...by-military-researchers.html?hpw&rref=science
