Pentagon Pushes for Climate Action

If world leaders do not act quickly to reverse environmentally harmful policies, climate change will threaten our coast lines, our energy consumption, and even our pay checks. And in a long term security strategy to be presented to Congress today, the Pentagon warns that climate change could also put American troops serving overseas at risk.

"While climate change alone does not cause conflict," a draft of the strategy said, "it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world."

On first glance, it seems surprising that the Pentagon would weigh in on a politically explosive topic like climate change. That's because the Department of Defense and intelligence community were suspiciously silent on climate change under the leadership of warmonger-in-chief George W. Bush, who famously refused to acknowledge climate change for much of his first term.

But good working relationships between the Pentagon and concerned climate scientists dates back to the early years of the Clinton administration, which implemented a program that urges the DOD to share classified satellite photographs of the Arctic Ocean with climate scientists.

In 1992, then-Senator Al Gore floated the idea with representatives from George H. W. Bush's CIA and DOD, and as vice-president, he implemented the program along with Leon Panetta — Clinton's chief of staff at the time — and departing CIA director Robert Gates. Bush II disbanded the program in 2001 but the New York Times reported earlier this year that the Obama administration plans to resurrect it.  "Decision makers need information and analysis on the effects climate change can have on security," said CIA Director Panetta in a press release when the agency opened a center on climate change and national security last fall. "The CIA is well positioned to deliver that intelligence."

This acknowledgment of the dire importance of climate change is not the only sign that the Pentagon takes climate change seriously. In 2004, the Observer obtained a suppressed Pentagon report warning that the threat of climate change was more serious than terrorism. Without swift action on climate change, "disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life," the report warned. "Once again, warfare would define human life."

The military has for decades supported the production of renewable energy like wind and solar as a means of reducing the country's dependence on oil from countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran. And with a new president who has pledged to do just that (primarily with nuclear power and "clean" coal, for shame), you can expect to see more earth-friendly government officials come out of the closet to integrate climate consciousness into their programs. Let's hope Obama listens.

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