USMC Brig. Gen. Stephen Cheney (ret.)
Posted on 07/30/2015 5:35:34 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Having spent more than 30 years in the US Marine Corps, I know what constitutes a national security threat. Climate change, caused in large part by the carbon pollution we dump into our air, presents risks to the safety of both our nation and our world at large. The threats of climate change include extreme weather, rising sea levels, reduced military capacity, and conditions that can enable worldwide violence and perpetuate terrorism.
To address this challenge, we’ll need to both prepare for the effects of climate change and reduce the pollution that is causing it. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Clean Power Plan proposal is set to be finalized shortly, our country has an unprecedented opportunity to protect itself from the national security threats imposed on us by climate change.
The EPA’s plan sets the first ever federal limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants, encourages investment in clean energy development, and helps boost energy efficiency measures. It’s vital we seize this opportunity, which also provides incentives and flexibility for states to meet their carbon reduction targets while creating jobs and lowering electricity bills at the same time. We are at risk now more than ever before. Last year was officially ranked as the warmest year on record, and the ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 2000, with the exception of 1998. While we cannot suggest direct causations between climate change and extreme weather events, there is substantial evidence that indicates strong correlations between the two.
As temperatures become warmer, more water evaporates. Warmer air is able to carry greater amounts of precipitation, which increases the potential for extreme storms and other natural disasters.
One of the biggest experiences of my career was in fact related to an extreme storm. I was the commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island in South Carolina when Hurricane Floyd threatened us in 1999. I had to evacuate the base, a decision made in part because the base was only fifteen feet above sea level. And that touches on another threat posed by climate change: rising sea levels.
Sea levels are rising, and projections estimate that they will continue to do so at increasing rates. By the end of the century, global sea levels could rise up to three feet or more, depending on the rate of ice sheets melting. Almost 50 percent of the population of the U.S. lives within 50 miles of the coastline, and almost 40 percent of the population lives in counties that are directly on the shoreline. It’s estimated that 150 million more people per year will experience flooding in 2075 if sea levels rise an average 21 inches.
Dozens of U.S. military bases are at risk from rising sea levels, which can also lead to mass displacements, loss of life, disruption to food production, famine, and more. And who will be expected to respond to these calamities? The military, of course, in addition to other local and national response units.
When Hurricane Sandy hit several years ago, tens of thousands of military personnel were activated.
The military is often a key response force for events that are caused at least in part by climate change. And thus climate change affects the military’s overall ability to defend the country. While busy responding to natural disasters, the military has less capacity to focus on other national security threats like terrorism and more international issues.
On that note, terrorism and other forms of global violence are also impacted by climate change. A Department of Defense report released last year explains how water scarcity exacerbated by climate change can lead to sharp cost increases for food. Resource competition puts a heavy burden on governments, societies, and economies, which act as “threat multipliers” that aggravate political stability, poverty, and social tensions – all conditions that enable and encourage violence and different forms of terrorist activity.
Both at home and abroad, the effects of climate change create severe threats to our nation’s security. However, it is a threat that can be contained and reduced significantly. That is why we need to prioritize reducing our carbon pollution, persuade other countries to do the same, and support the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which presents an unprecedented opportunity for us to take climate change in our own hands and mitigate the dangers it poses.
Cheney is the chief executive officer of the American Security Project (ASP) and a member of the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board
Never trust an officer above the rank of Major.
Glad I stopped at Captain, then... ;)
There are plenty I would trust.
None of them are Liberals, though. Your statement should read: “Never trust an officer of any rank who is liberal.”
Okay, THAT is perfect...
I work in this business. Just because someone obtains a high rank, does not mean they are smart or competent.
I worked for a living!
Yeah, I stopped at Major. Where do they find sell outs like this one, though. And a Marine, no less.
Sounds like a high school paper
Leftist colleges, for the most part.
Anything above O-5 is genetically a politician, in any case.
It is a line from “Catch 22”. I should have referenced it but I thought everyone knew.
There is no such thing as man made climate change.
The climate does change and is probably on a grand scale beyond our grasp as to how the world climate cycle works between ice ages and dust bowls. The earth could be on a ten thousand year cycle of repeating events that we would be clueless on.
If we had weather change could that be a national security threat? I would think it is possible in as much as having a mini ice age on the states could effect security.
RIGHT!!!!!
Liberals started with this stupid bullshit messaging that global warming was a national security threat b/c polling showed that the American public rated global warming at the very bottom of their priorities and national security at the very top.
> Never trust an officer above the rank of Major.
When they become retired old senile geezers the feds pay them a little money to don the uniform and appear on camera to read a few lines to push the agenda lend credibility to their arguments. This is one of them. They probably don’t even know or remember what they said the next day...lol
Well, they stopped me there....now I know why!
Much better.
Anyone high up in the military who believes global warming um, er........."climate change" is a threat to national security and perhaps even had a plan to deal with it is loonier than Dr Strangelove ever could have been.
Since Global Warming predicts more frequent hurricanes of higher intensity, this record shattering calm spell is...wait for it...proof of Global Warming.
By the way, Sandy did not rise to the level of hurricane.
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