Hagel: Climate change will challenge US military

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

AREQUIPA, Peru (AP) — Rising sea levels and other effects of climate change will pose major challenges for America's military, including more and worse natural disasters and the threat that food and water shortages could fuel disputes and instability around the world, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday.

Addressing a conference of military leaders as the Pentagon released a new report on the issue, Hagel said, "Our militaries' readiness could be tested, and our capabilities could be stressed."

U.S. military officials have long warned that changes in climate patterns, resulting in increased severe weather events and coastal flooding, will have a broad and costly impact on the Defense Department's ability to protect the nation and respond to natural and humanitarian disasters in the United States and around the globe.

The new report — described as a roadmap for the Pentagon — identifies four things that it says will affect the U.S. military: rising global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, more extreme weather and rising sea levels. It calls on the department and the military services to identify more specific concerns, including possible effects on the more than 7,000 bases and facilities, and to start putting plans in place to deal with them.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2014 file photo, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks at a new conference at the Tolemaida military base in Melgar, Colombia. Rising temperatures, higher sea levels and other effects of climate change will pose major challenges for America's military, the Pentagon says. Defense officials say a report slated for release Monday will lay out plans for the Pentagon to get a better handle on how climate change will affect the milit (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141013/lt--climate_change-military-406bcd6081.html

[Autumn]

1. Bet it will be more of a major challenge for the American people.

The MIC will get whatever it needs.. or wants, as it does now.

[JDPriestly]

2. K&R. The military is the only group in the US that can rally people to the environmental cause.

So be it.

[RufusTFirefly]

3. They'd better. In 2007, DOD was responsible for 93% of all US government fuel consumption

It's the single largest consumer of energy in the entire world

FACT 8: According to 2007 CIA World Fact Book there are only 35 countries in the world consuming more oil than DoD. Guess how many countries consume more oil per capita than the DoD? Only three.

More here

[lunatica]

4. But it's probably the single fastest institution to make changes when it wants to.

From what I gather they can change what they're doing very fast. Note the speed with which they're dealing with the logistics of initiating and maintaining humanitarian activity around the Ebola thing in Africa. They have their own workforce built right in.

Hopefully their conversion from oil to renewable energy sources can be very fast.

[RufusTFirefly]

5. Can't disagree in substance

I just wish the people we dispatch to bring aid to the sick and needy didn't have such a morally conflicted mission.

I'd prefer genuine peacekeepers, myself, without the baggage that comes from things like "Shock and Awe."

[lunatica]

6. I agree with your preference.

[Cha]

7. Thanks for recognizing the shit is real, DS Hagel