Breakthrough! U.S. Military focuses on climate change as a national security issue

Military Sharpens Focus on Climate Change
A Decline in Resources Is Projected to Cause Increasing Instability Overseas
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 15, 2007; Page A06

The U.S. military is increasingly focused on a potential national security threat: climate change.

Just last month the U.S. Army War College funded a two-day conference at the Triangle Institute for Security Studies titled "The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change." And tomorrow, a group of 11 retired senior generals will release a report saying that global warming "presents significant national security challenges to the United States," which it must address or face serious consequences.

The 63-page report -- which is being released a day before the U.N. Security Council holds its first-ever briefing on climate change -- lays out a detailed case for how global warming could destabilize vulnerable states in Africa and Asia and drive a flood of migrants to richer countries. It focuses on how climate change "can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world," in part by causing water shortages and damaging food production.

The study's authors, along with several other national security experts, confirmed last week that the military has begun studying possible future impacts of global warming with new intensity....

Commissioned by the Center for Naval Analyses, a government-funded think tank, the report boasts a list of contributors that includes eight retired four-star generals and three three-stars. Many have significant technological expertise, and some, such as Admiral T. Joseph Lopez, are close to Vice President Cheney. Others, including Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, have criticized President Bush in recent years.

The Army's former chief of staff, Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, who is one of the authors, noted he had been "a little bit of a skeptic" when the study group began meeting in September. But, after being briefed by top climate scientists and observing changes in his native New England, Sullivan said he was now convinced that global warming presents a grave challenge to the country's military preparedness....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401209.html?hpid=topnews

And will the distraction work? :hi:

"Climate change" is verbal softpedaling, courtesy of Frank "Stay-Puft" Luntz.

Framing, framing, framing!

NGU.

could be a global climate thing going on. It IS going on...

If not, PM me with an address and I'll make sure you get a copy.

NGU.

warming. I mentioned global climate change, and the fact that come July it will be flipping hot here.
OTOH, this coolness might distract some hurricanes (I can only hope!).

climate change is better. Local weather patterns will change because the earth is one great big heat engine. Heat is the fuel that moves the atmosphere, the oceans and the water cycle. A relatively small change in the amount of heat input can cause radical changes in weather patterns making one area cooler and another warmer. It also has radical effects on short term weather, ala Katrina and cold front/warm air clashes. Texas has been in a drought for the last five years at least and there is no relief in sight. The Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex has gone on drought water restrictions year around instead of just the Summer months.

A one degree global increase can result in ten degree local change, either up or down, as the increased heat fuels jet stream and ocean current movements.

It the biggest security threat we face. Frankly, terrorism is for pikers.