DOD Takes On Climate Change — Or Does It?
Today’s National Journal’s Energy and Environment blog posed the question, “Should Climate Change Be A ‘Risk’? American Security Project (ASP) board member and Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Stephen Cheney (Ret.) offered the following response:
Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks…..and (supposedly) he answered, “because that’s where the money is.” So climate change has finally gotten the attention of the one institution in our Federal Government that has real money – the Department of Defense. In the latest version of the Quadrennial Defense Review, issued in February, there is a significant section addressing the potential impact that climate change will have on stability in the world. It describes how climate change would contribute to conflict and impact our safety. But the DoD, at least in this report, is more concerned about accessing the potential impact of climate change, versus the causes. And while their interest is laudable, can they really help counter what is increasingly seen as not just a threat to our safety but our way of life?
Perhaps we ought to be grateful that this issue is finally receiving the attention it richly deserves, and for just the first time is mentioned not only in this document but in the Department of Homeland Security’s first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (albeit briefly). Should both Departments be dedicating more assets and effort to this long-term threat? And if so, what should those assets be?
As I mentioned in my talk to opinion leaders on Capitol Hill on January 27th, the Department of Defense is the one Federal entity that has “boots on the ground” throughout the world that can best assess the impact of climate change on worldwide stability. Should we be tasking the Combatant Commanders to report on not only the impact of climate change but our dependence on fossil fuel and foreign sources for that fuel? And what more can both DoD and DHS be doing to not just access the impact but counter the causes?
What Willie Sutton really said was “go where the money is…..and go there often.” Appropriate in this circumstance?
