CIA Director Cites ‘Impact of Climate Change’ as Deeper Cause of Global Instability

CNS News ^ | 11/16/15

[markomalley]

Speaking today at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said that CIA analysts see “climate change” as a “deeper cause” of the instability seen in places like Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Yemen and Libya.

“Mankind’s relationship with the natural world is aggravating these problems and is a potential source of crisis itself,” Brennan said at one point in his speech. “Last year was the warmest on record, and this year is on track to be even warmer.”

“When CIA analysts look for deeper causes of this rising instability, they find nationalistic, sectarian, and technological factors that are eroding the structure of the international system,” he said in another part of his speech. “They also see socioeconomic trends, the impact of climate change, and other elements that are cause for concern.”

(video at link)

Here are key excerpts from Brennan’s speech:

“The impression one might get from the daily headlines is that the world has become more unstable. And indeed, the historical record supports that judgment.

“In the past three years, there have been more outbreaks of instability than at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, matching the rate we saw during decolonization in the 1960s. This has not just been a period of protests and government change, but of violent insurgency and, in particular, of breakdowns in many states’ ability to govern.

“Ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Yemen, Libya, and parts of Africa are clear examples. The human toll is reflected in the UN’s recent announcement that the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world is the highest it has been since World War II. And of course, all this localized strife gives rise to the persistent threat of international terrorism.

“When CIA analysts look for deeper causes of this rising instability, they find nationalistic, sectarian, and technological factors that are eroding the structure of the international system. They also see socioeconomic trends, the impact of climate change, and other elements that are cause for concern. ….

“In many developing societies, growing pessimism about the prospects for economic advancement is fueling instability. Regions with burgeoning youth populations, such as the Arab world, have been unable to achieve the growth needed to reduce high unemployment rates. Perceptions of growing inequality have resulted in more assertive street politics and populism. At the same time, slower growth has left these nations with fewer resources to devote to economic, humanitarian, and peacekeeping assistance to address these challenges.

“Mankind’s relationship with the natural world is aggravating these problems and is a potential source of crisis itself. Last year was the warmest on record, and this year is on track to be even warmer.

“Extreme weather, along with public policies affecting food and water supplies, can worsen or create humanitarian crises. Of most immediate concern, sharply reduced crop yields in multiple places simultaneously could trigger a shock in food prices with devastating effect, especially in already fragile regions such as Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Compromised access to food and water greatly increases the prospect for famine and deadly epidemics.

To read the full transcript of Brennan’s speech posted on the CIA website click here.

[markomalley]

You just can't make this stuff up.

[Da Coyote]

Does anyone wonder now why the CIA ain’t worth shi...er...Obamastiff?

[choctaw man]

Fruitcakes in high places (not friends in low places).

[Bubba_Leroy]

If the CIA is actually buying into this crap then it explains why we have no foreign intelligence.

[bgill]

He’s a muslim convert.

[Moonman62]

And climate change is caused by white people.

This kind of talk could lead to another Civil War.

[KSCITYBOY]

He should be fired for stupidity.

[butlerweave]

Crazy Incompetent Agency

[ryderann]

I can deal with the weather better than I can a machete to my neck.

[Ancesthntr]

How about mass insanity, egged on by a bunch of greedy, self-serving elitists?

[ETL]

Jane Fonda sounds climate change alarm in Toronto
The Star ^ | July 4, 2015 | Christopher Reynolds

"The climate change problem is the issue of our civilization. It will affect everything about our lives if we don't do something about it," she [Jane Fonda] says.
___________________________________________________

Here's Hanoi Jane remarking on the agenda that Obama refers to as (quote)
"The fundamental transformation of the United States of America"...

November 22, 1970 -- During a fund-raising tour for GI deserters, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Black Panthers, Jane Fonda is quoted in the Detroit Free Press as telling a University of Michigan audience:

"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist," and "The peace proposal of the Viet Cong is the only honorable, just, possible way to achieve peace in Vietnam."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline
______________________________________________

Fonda made the following statement at the University of Texas:
"We've got to establish a Socialist economic structure that will limit private profit-oriented businesses. Whether the transition is peaceful depends on the way our present governmental leaders react. We must commit our lives to this transition ...... We should be very proud of our new breed of soldier. It's not organized but it's mutiny, and they have every right." --Karen Elliott Dallas Morning News December 11, 1971

From 1972: "I am not a do-gooder, I am a revolutionary. A revolutionary woman."

*******************************************************************

No great surprise here...

From RushLimbaugh.com:
Hanoi Jane Endorses Obama
April 3, 2008

REPORTER 1: Jane, who are you voting for?

REPORTER 2: Who gets your vote?

FONDA: Obama.

REPORTER 2: Oh, my God. Heaven help us all.

RUSH: The reporter for TMZ said, "Oh, God. Heaven help us all." Obviously the reporter is an Obama supporter.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_040308/content/01125111.guest.html

[Blennos]

You have to wonder if appointing as CIA Director someone this incompetent, so clearly unworthy of this position, is BHO’s way of showing his utter contempt for the United States. He has done similar for numerous high positions. It’s time for a “deus ex machina” to retire BHO. I don’t care how. Just go BHO! Begone!

[ETL]

Bin Laden blasts US for climate change

CAIRO - Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.

In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.

Bin Laden blasts US for climate change
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/bin-laden-blasts-us-for-climate-change/

[ETL]

"The environment is suffering damage that could be irreversible - global warming, the greenhouse effect, the melting of the polar ice caps, the rising sea level, hurricanes - with terrible social occurrences that will shake life on this planet."

"I believe this idea has a strong connection with reality. I don't think we have much time. Fidel Castro said in one of his speeches I read not so long ago, 'tomorrow could be too late, let's do now what we need to do'."

"I believe it is time that we take up with courage and clarity a political, social, collective and ideological offensive across the world - a real offensive that permits us to move progressively, over the next years, the next decades, leaving behind the perverse, destructive, destroyer, capitalist model and go forward in constructing the socialist model to avoid barbarism and beyond that the annihilation of life on this planet."

-Hugo Chavez, at the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Caracas on August 8-15, 2005

Hugo Chavez - Speech Delivered at the 16th World Youth Festiva
http://mltoday.com/hugo-chavez-speech-delivered-at-the-16th-world-youth-festiva

[Scrambler Bob]

He should be neutered, then executed, for stupidity.

[boomop1]

This pecker head is a Muslim.

[Diogenesis]

Could his Moslem background make it difficult
to say, “ISLAMIC MURDERERS kill more than climate change”?

[Iron Munro]

You have to give these crazies some credit - they stick to the script and their talking points.

[sheik yerbouty]

Apparently, he’s a crypto shi’ite...

[catnipman]

this would explain why the U.S. fight against ISIS has been so ineffective as to be essentially non-existent ...