An aerial view of Norfolk Naval Station. (Christopher B. Stoltz / U.S. Navy)
ASP President BGen Stephen Cheney in Military.com on Climate Change Risk to Military Bases
On November 12, comments from ASP President Brigadier General Stephen Cheney was featured in a Military.com article on the necessity of building a sea wall around Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. BGen Cheney spoke at an event sponsored by Elected Officials to Protect America, a “nonprofit focused on environment and sustainability, among other policy areas.”
BGen Cheney noted his personal experience with climate change impact on military bases:
“I used to command a base that was dramatically impacted, Parris Island, and is now getting flooded routinely just in normal rainfall and sea level rise.”
BGen Cheney emphasized flooding of coastal U.S. military bases as a major national security concern. He highlighted challenges at Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval base in the world, as a salient demonstration of the consequences of climate change:
“The piers at [Naval Station Norfolk] are going under water; the problem with that is the electricity is run underneath those piers. As the water level rises, they don’t get electricity. You cannot put ships next to those piers.”
Check out the American Security Project’s Military Base Resilience website for more information on how climate change is affecting the U.S. military.
Read the full article in Military.com here.
