More and more experts are saying global warming is as grave a threat to our national security (PDF) as terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Some in the media are coming to the same view.
The Financial Times set up their coverage with the following scenario, pulled from a Pentagon memo:
Picture Japan, suffering from flooding along its coastal cities and contamination of its fresh water supply, eyeing Russia’s Sakhalin Island oil and gas reserves as an energy source … Envision Pakistan, India and China – all armed with nuclear weapons – skirmishing at their borders over refugees, access to shared river and arable land.
And if nuclear power plants take center stage in the drive to cut carbon dioxide emissions and therein lead to nuclear weapon proliferation, you can see why the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock forward two minutes in anticipation of potentially unwise climate solutions.
There is no telling what consequence of global warming will be the most devastating — refugees, spurred terrorism, sea level rise, food and water shortages — but we must bear them all in mind. The national security threat posed by global warming will only grow if we continue our do-nothing policy.
This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
