Pentagon tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us

The Observer (UK) ^ | Sunday February 22, 2004 | Mark Townsend and Paul Harris

[Jakenuts]

Dunno how anyone can prove the source of the report, but it isn't beyond believability that one day environmentalism would be a national security priority. ...and debate...

[CobaltBlue]

The Observer completely misrepresents the study. It was done as a "what if? - worst case analysis." Forbes printed an article about it a month ago - here's the disclaimer:
"The result is an unclassified report, completed late last year, that the Pentagon has agreed to share with FORTUNE. It doesn't pretend to be a forecast. Rather, it sketches a dramatic but plausible scenario to help planners think about coping strategies."

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,582584,00.html

[reluctantwarrior]

Hi Jake I posted this yesterday.

[r9etb]

So let's see.... Global Warming will plunge Britain into a "Siberian" climate? Riiiiight.

[LibFreeUSA]

"Pentagon tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us"

This looks like of those headlines above the picture of the Martian shaking Bush's hand.

[Jakenuts]

That makes sense, I'm prolly a bit more on the lefty side of this whole global warming issue than most here, but 2020 sounded a bit alarmist.

[kt56]

BARF alert????

[Teacher317]

So let's see.... Global Warming will plunge Britain into a "Siberian" climate? Riiiiight.

Well, I'm sure that natural cycles will return Britain to Siberian climes, but in TWENTY YEARS?!?!?

[Experiment 6-2-6]

Climate Wars!

Coming to a theater near you...

[r9etb]

I was chuckling about the use of "warming" and "Siberian" in the same sentence.

Perhaps, given the dire predictions, we should call it....

Global Warmongering

[sully777]

Better Vote Nader! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Pentagon goes green. Sunshine and Moonbeam become NSA Director and Sec. of Defense (respectively of course, who can imagine Moonbeam in charge of the NSA).

[Cicero]

Just what is it that the press doesn't understand about contingency planning?

So, we had a plan to invade Iraq before 9/11. We probably also have a plan to invade England lying around somewhere, but hopefully we won't have to use it.

[old3030]

Here's the way I look at it:

1) I've never had the melting ice cubes in my tea cause my glass to overflow. So I'm not worried about all the ice in the Arctic and Anarctica that's already in the water. The melting of that ice will actually lower the ocean levels.

Ice floats precisely because water is one of those few odd compounds that is actually less dense in the solid state than in the liquid state.

2) Say there really is a slight increase in global temps -- that means what? Not deserts. More evaporation, more water vapor in the air. More rain, more snow. Cooler temperatures.

It's, uh, like a cycle, man.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

"The only question is whether the sun will go nova first or whether the sea level will rise an inch", the super-secret Pentagon source added.

[Revolutionary]

This whole thing is a load of crap. I used to do future scenarios at the Pentagon. Probable scenarios are labled simular to: "Large Regional Competitor". There are other scenarios that we called "Wild Cards". These were very low probabilty, high-impact scenarios. That is where all those movies about asteroids hitting the Earth came from. Because of the high-impact, some thought is put into the problem and sometimes a small amount of money so we are ready with a solution if it does happen. But because it is very low probability, there is no policy impact or serious money applied.

The left uses the idea that global warming will raise sea levels. That's because most of them and many with big bucks live along the coasts.

Here is an easy global warming experiment. Put some ice in a glass; fill it to the very tippy top. Watch the ice melt. Hint: there is no need for a napkin (except for condensation on the outside of the glass in humid climates). Try this with your liberal friends (if you have any).

The real scoop: The sun is going through one of its normal increased activity cycles. This causes a very slight increase in temps which is moderated by a self stabilizing environment. It is also the reason for the ozone hole. If you look at a picture of the magnetosphere you will begin to understand. A little warming is probably good based on history. If it looked like it was going to be a real problem, the solution would be easy and require no behavior changes by the population.

[joesnuffy]

And what IS the Rifkinite..Third Way...Sustainable Development crowd's answer to
Global Warming.........why Global Government of course......along with a Global Military...Global Currency...and Global Religion....of course...

Social Change through proper crisis management....

[eastforker]

First let me say I do not believe in global warming. Second let it be said only an axis shift could cause a natural global catastrophe excluding Yellowstone from blowing up. Thirdly, your anology of ice in a glass melting is BS. We have polar ice caps that are not in the water to start with but even if they melted I doubt it would cause a flood, it might cause the seas to rise an inch or two though.

[Jakenuts]

That's an interesting point (the icecube metaphor). I tried searching around for some scientific discussion of the reasoning behind "melt=rise" and didn't find much. One of the things I noticed though was alot of discussion about Greenland and the fact that it is melting which makess me think that the flaw in the ice cube idea is that it assumes the ice cube is floating in the water and not resting on top of something. If the glacier is resting on land, then any melting would definitely add to the water in the seas and would account for sea-level rising, no?

[Defender2]

Not again, with this garbage, sheesh, it's only getting staler by the day.

[Steve_Seattle]

I wonder if Townsend and Harris would bet me $10,000 that Britain will have a Siberian climate within 20 years? There's not a chance in hell they would take that bet.