No. 7. you’re right. This is not about AGW (global warming) per se. It is about how “climate” effects a combat arena, something I saw first hand in Vietnam and Cambodia( as a journalist).
You need special equipment, medicines, and tactics in a jungle environment, a swamp environment, a Mangrove sector, mountainous regions (with box canyons) (re AShau Valley, Ia Drang Valley, etc), versus the elephant grass in much of I Corp.
You also need to know how to operate in a marine/estuary environment as did our Brown Water navy (Swiftboats, monitors, etc).
In Desert Storm and OIF (in which my son fought), the climate/environment (thousands of years old), was a major enemy (re sand in the equipment/vehicles, preventing air support, blinding ground troops, as the Iraqi fedeyeen found out as they were killed by the thousands thanks to night vision googles, lack of water, lack of clean water, diseases, insects, etc).
Since Al Qaeda and ISIS and even the Taliban operate in these types of environments, with similar climates except for the Afghanistan mountains, we need to know how to operate there and have adapted magnificently to it.
And there isn’t a damned thing you can do to change the thousands of years old climate/environment. Cutting car exhaust emissions is like pissing into a hurricane - it doesn’t make any difference.
Are Artic ice, yes, it is a major concern as the Russian Navy expands into areas nearer to Canada and the US that they couldn’t access before. And we can’t stop the ice from melting, moving in different directions, or even growing. We can ADAPT to it by using new tactics and technology, of which we are very good.
Jungles will be jungles, deserts will be deserts, and you aren’t going to change them. You can only adapt to them, but being aware of natural and abnormal changes is always a part of the preparation equation. If not, then you’re a fool and incompetent.
I don’t think that Gen. Mattis is either. I think he understands that things change and he wants to be prepared to deal with that.
+1