US Military Brass Considers Global Warming a National Security Threat

Anthony Zinni is a retired four-star General in the Marine Corps and a former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command. After retiring from the military in 2000, in 2002 he was selected to be a special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Here are some of his comments on global warming:

There may be some debate as to degree and affect, but the point is if you just write off the science, if you don't accept what seems to me to be the majority view, then you are saying you are going to roll the dice and take a chance. And I think if you look at the potential outcomes of that, we would see that for our children and our grandchildren, that that could be a disaster. They will look back and say 'You should have seen this. You should have taken the prudent course of action and prepared for this. You should have taken the actions to lessen the impact.'

For more on global warming from General Zinni, watch this YouTube video.

Admiral Samuel Locklear III is a Navy four-star admiral who currently serves as Commander, U.S. Pacific Command. He previously served as Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Naval Forces Africa and NATO's Commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples. In March, Admiral Locklear was interviewed by the Boston Globe. Here are some excerpts from the article:

America’s top military officer in charge of monitoring hostile actions by North Korea, escalating tensions between China and Japan, and a spike in computer attacks traced to China provides an unexpected answer when asked what is the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region: climate change.

Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, in an interview at a Cambridge hotel Friday after he met with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities, said significant upheaval related to the warming planet “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen ... that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’

“People are surprised sometimes,” he added, describing the reaction to his assessment. “You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level.”

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But when it comes to pragmatic military planning, Locklear said he is increasingly focused on [rising sea levels].

“The ice is melting and sea is getting higher,” Locklear said, noting that 80 percent of the world’s population lives within 200 miles of the coast. “I’m into the consequence management side of it. I’m not a scientist, but the island of Tarawa in Kiribati, they’re contemplating moving their entire population to another country because [it] is not going to exist anymore.”

The US military, he said, is beginning to reach out to other armed forces in the region about the issue.

“We have interjected into our multilateral dialogue – even with China and India – the imperative to kind of get military capabilities aligned [for] when the effects of climate change start to impact these massive populations,” he said. “If it goes bad, you could have hundreds of thousands or millions of people displaced and then security will start to crumble pretty quickly.’’

David Titley is a retired Rear Admiral in the Navy. He has a Ph.D. in meteorology, served as commander of the Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the Naval Oceanography Operations Command, and the director of the Navy's Task Force Climate Change. He now teaches at Penn State. This is from a presentation he gave in 2011:

As I go around the country, I find that there are still a fair number of people who believe this is all some vast left-wing conspiracy, that climate change is a hoax. I am not going to ask for a show of hands or anything like that, but I hope to convince you that climate is in fact changing and that, at the global level, it is actually pretty simple to understand.

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If the world continues to put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which we are doing, the climate will change, and it will probably change in some pretty significant ways.

CNA is a non-profit research organization that operates the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research. The following is from their website:

In 2006 CNA convened a Military Advisory Board (MAB) of eleven retired three-star and four-star admirals and generals to assess the impact of global climate change on key matters of national security, and to lay the groundwork for mounting responses to the threats found.

In April 2007, CNA released the MAB's landmark report, National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, that articulates the concept of climate change acting as a “threat multiplier” for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world and identifies key challenges that must be planned for now if they are to be met effectively in the future.

The report includes several formal findings:

• Projected climate change poses a serious threat to America's national security.
• Climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.
• Projected climate change will add to tensions even in stable regions of the world.
• Climate change, national security and energy dependence are a related set of global challenges.

• The national security consequences of climate change should be fully integrated into national security and national defense strategies.
• The U.S. should commit to a stronger national and international role to help stabilize climate changes at levels that will avoid significant disruption to global security and stability.
• The U.S. should commit to global partnerships that help less developed nations build the capacity and resiliency to better manage climate impacts.
• The Department of Defense should enhance its operational capability by accelerating the adoption of improved business processes and innovative technologies that result in improved U.S. combat power through energy efficiency.
• DoD should conduct an assessment of the impact on U.S. military installations worldwide of rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and other possible climate change impacts over the next 30 to 40 years.