U.S. National Security and Climate Change
It’s no secret that the U.S. military has climate change on its radar screen, insofar as the prospect of 200 million climate refugees has grave implications for things like homeland security, not to mention the potential to stabilize regions outside the actual “homeland.” Linked here is an article on the subject that touches on some of the many hundreds of phenomena that lie at the intersection of the logistics, economics and politics brought about by a warming planet. For instance:
“The desertification in the borderlands between Chad and Nigeria has caused a lot of migration, and the terror organization Boko Haram is simply taking advantage of that,” according to Brigadier General Stephen Cheney who spoke on “conflict and climate change” earlier this year at the Defense, National Security, and Climate Change Symposium in Washington, D.C.
Climate disruption by human activity has long been recognized as a serious threat by the military and national security establishments in the US, and still some politicians and others persist in denial. Ignorance is only bliss temporarily.
Denialism is coming to an end, though, it seems to me. E.g., you won’t see any serious 2016 U.S. presidential hopefuls in any party taking up that banner. Even Marco Rubio, who foolishly positioned himself as a denier will back off from this absurd platform at some point in his campaign (assuming he gets that far).