Climate, Energy, and National Security
In case you missed it, there was a great piece by Alexandra Zavis in the Boston Globe on May 3, “Going green becomes a matter of national security.”
In it, Zavis details how the military is, in many respects, leading the way on climate and energy security–not simply because military leaders say so, but because it makes good strategic and tactical sense.
Consider this:
The Defense Department is the single largest energy consumer in the United States. Last year it bought nearly 4 billion gallons of jet fuel, 220 million gallons of diesel, and 73 million gallons of gasoline, said Brian Lally, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment.
Or this:
American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are using more fuel each day than in any other war in US history. When oil prices spiked last summer, the Defense Department’s energy tab shot up from about $13 billion per year in 2006 and 2007 to $20 billion in 2008. The Army alone had to make up a half-billion-dollar shortfall in its energy budget, said Keith Eastin, assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment.
Think of all the lives lost because Americans had to protect fuel convoys in Iraq. Think of the billions of dollars flowing straight from the U.S. treasury to oil producing states that may not have America’s best interests at heart.
At Fort Irwin, California, initiatives to insulate tents for rotating units reduced generator usage by 45 to 75 percent, according to Zavis. Officials there believe they can “cut the carbon emissions at the base by 35 million pounds each year–the equivalent of taking 3,500 vehicles off the road.”
Last year, ASP’s bipartisan board of directors included climate change and energy security as two of the critical national security challenges facing the United States in the years ahead and recommended taking urgent action to meet both threats, including leveraging the purchasing power of the U.S. government to seed the market for climate-friendly technologies and energy security.
It’s gratifying to see the U.S. military take action on this front–but then we shouldn’t be surprised. Military officers, in my experience, understand the uniqueness of the climate-energy nexus as a national security threat better than many others.
