New York Times: Climate and Security: The Link Is Unavoidable
To the Editor:
Your Aug. 18 editorial about climate change (“The Climate and National Security”) was correct in describing the new and unprecedented wave of national security challenges we will face as a result of global warming — although the repercussions of these changes are not as far off as one would think.
During my recent testimony on this issue before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I highlighted how climate change will lead to increased conflicts around the world because of water and agricultural shortages, changes in patterns of human migration, and further destabilization in areas like South Asia, potentially fostering an increase in global terrorism.
Climate change has already contributed to conflicts in regions like Darfur; it has already affected United States military operations; and it will increasingly affect American military planning for contingencies around the world. And if we don’t lead the way on curbing these changes, others will.
China has already announced its plan to lead the world in the production of electric cars, and European companies already lead the world in developing methods of alternative-energy production.
The writing is on the wall. The question is not whether we act or not, but whether we do so now or later, and deal with much more dire — and expensive — consequences.
Lee Gunn
Washington, Aug. 19, 2009
The writer, a retired vice admiral in the United States Navy, is president of the American Security Project.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/opinion/l21climate.html?_r=1
