Climate change poses security risks, according to decades of intelligence reports

A series of authoritative governmental and nongovernmental analyses over more than three decades lays a strong foundation for concern over climate change implications for national security.

Intelligence officials for three decades have
warned of security risks from climate change. 

Most recently, the national intelligence community – including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other federal agencies – in January 2019 submitted the annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment.” In it, the intelligence agencies stated that “climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources such as food and water. These impacts are already occurring, and the scope, scale, and intensity of these impacts are projected to increase over time.”

That report from National Intelligence Director Daniel R. Coats, a former U.S. Republican senator from Indiana, was just the most recent in a long string of analyses that any upcoming challenges to such conclusions will have to address. Those conclusions clearly are at odds with the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine and reverse federal climate policies, and they cast doubt on the President’s next day tweet that “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”

Read the story from Yale Climate Connections by Dana Nuccitelli - “Climate change poses security risks, according to decades of intelligence reports.”

The Most Definitive Report on Climate Change in America

The burning of coal, oil, and gas is changing the global climate faster now than at any other time in modern human history, threatening our national security, our economic prosperity, and our children’s future. All this will get worse, perhaps unimaginably so, unless we shift to cleaner, smarter ways to power our future — and do so now, because we’re running out of time.

Tropical Storm Irma’s effects in Charleston, South Carolina.

That’s the conclusion of the new National Climate Assessment, the most definitive report ever compiled on climate change in America. The congressionally mandated quadrennial review pulls together experts from 13 federal agencies to connect the dots between what the science is telling us and what we’re seeing on our TVs, in our newspapers, and out our kitchen windows. “The impacts and costs of climate change are already being felt in the United States,” the report states in sum. “Future risks from climate change depend primarily on decisions made today.”

In little more than a century, the temperature has risen 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, on average, across the continental United States. That might not sound like much, but it is remaking the map of America and altering the country in ways that touch every aspect of our lives.

Read the story from the Natural Resources Defence Council by Rhea Suh - “The Most Definitive Report on Climate Change in America.”

Alarmingly low' oil supplies may prompt more drilling in Great Australian Bight, minister warns

Concerns about national security and energy supply could prompt further bids to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, the Federal Resources Minister has warned.

Statoil has permission to explore the two light blue areas of the Bight.

In his address to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association's (APPEA) annual conference in Adelaide on Tuesday, Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan said the Bight could play a vital role in bolstering Australia's domestic oil supply.

Mr Canavan said Australia's oil production had dropped to alarmingly low levels.

Read Isabel Dayman’s story from ABC News - “‘Alarmingly low' oil supplies may prompt more drilling in Great Australian Bight, minister warns.”

(Rather than taking the easy way out and engage some high-risk drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight, our government should be following the advice of the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and in applying some innovative thinking, explore and understand how we can use renewable energy to power the country and in doing so leave the fossil fuels in the ground - Robert McLean)

The ‘longest war’ that Australia is not prepared for.

CLIMATE change is already acknowledged as a national security risk in the US but Australia seems unprepared for what some experts are calling “the longest war”.

Protesters ride on an armoured personnel carrier as
it moves through the streets near Tahrir Square on
January 28, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

Sherri Goodman, a former Pentagon and US Department of Defence official, has helped to develop groundbreaking reports on the links between climate change and national security.

While Australians may not yet recognise the risks, Ms Goodman told news.com.au that in the US, the link was widely accepted within the military and national security leadership.

Even Donald Trump’s new Secretary of Defence James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month that climate change was a threat to the country’s troops.

“Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today,” Mattis reportedly confirmed in a statement.

Ms Goodman, who coined the term “threat multiplier” to describe the climate change risk, said Australia is not immune to its potentially devastating impacts.

Read Charis Chang’s story on news.com - “The ‘longest war’ that Australia is not prepared for.”

Disaster alley’: Australia could be set to receive new wave of climate refugees

Australia could be on the frontline of a new wave of “climate refugees” displaced by extreme weather events, droughts and rising seas, a US expert on the national security impacts of climate change has warned.

A king tide crashes through the sea wall, flooding
 Pita Meanke’s family home on the low-lying
South Pacific island of Kiribati.

Sherri Goodman, a former US deputy undersecretary of defence, argues the impact of climate change – rising seas, extreme weather, prolonged droughts – will be a “threat multiplier” for sepacurity challenges, and could be the spark that ignites conflict and drives new waves of mass forced migration.

The Asia-Pacific region was acutely vulnerable, she said.

“You may be on the frontlines here in Australia for climate refugees,” she told the Guardian in Sydney. “The first wave will be those who have to flee the low-lying Pacific islands, because many of them will be uninhabitable, even in our lifetimes.”

Read Ben Doherty’s story on The Guardian - “‘Disaster alley’: Australia could be set to receive new wave of climate refugees.”

Our environment should be a national security issue - Robert Redford



Robert Redford.

Hollywood identity Robert Redford said:

“I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?”

Discussion at University of Melbourne in June about climate change and national security

T

wo of the world’s leading experts will launch of the Centre for Policy Development’s (CPD) report examining climate change and Australia’s national security

In May this year, President Obama acknowledged something that is fast becoming conventional wisdom in the United States and around the globe: that climate change is a threat to national security.

CPD’s report is an important contribution to the national policy debate about how we prepare Australia for the coming security impacts of climate change, and how our defence force must adapt to continue to secure our peace and stability.

The UK Government's former Climate and Energy Security EnvoyRear Admiral Neil Morisetti, and the former chief of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Admiral Chris Barrie.

Former chief of the Australian
Defence Force (ADF), Admiral
 Chris Barrie.

Rear Admiral Morisetti - he
will launch the report.

Rear Admiral Morisetti will launch the report with a keynote address.

Admiral Morisetti is the UK Government's former Climate and Energy Security Envoy and an expert on climate security and its effects on international relations and the military. 

This will be followed by a panel discussion with Admiral Morisetti and Admiral Barrie.

The launch will be held on Monday, June 22 at 6:00pm in Theatre 1 on the ground floor at 111 Barry St, Carlton, University of Melbourne.