NY Times: Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/science/earth/09climate.html

August 9, 2009

Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

By JOHN M. BRODER

WASHINGTON — The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.

Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.

An exercise at the National Defense University, an educational institute overseen by the military, last December explored the potential impact of a flood in Bangladesh that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming into neighboring India, touching off religious conflict, the spread of contagious diseases and vast damage to infrastructure.

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[tularetom]

1. But if we just ignore it it won't be a problem now

See how easy it is to deal with issues like global warming?

[targetpractice]

4. Ignore it and it will become a problem and opportunity!

Now I really understand why the Republicans don't want to do anything to prevent global warming... The security threat caused by global climate change is an opportunity for the military industrial complex!

[Deja Q]

2. So is an unsound economy, terror cells, and pretty much anything anyone can think of.

:shrug:

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. I think cooperating to combat "climate change" could be very good for U.S. National Security

The U.S. can unite other countries against us by giving them a common "enemy." Or we can unite with other countries, in a shared endeavor.