DoD Releases Strategic Sustainability Plan (re climate change)

[nitpicker]

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=123540

DoD Releases Strategic Sustainability Plan

By Nick Simeone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2014 – The Defense Department released a plan today intended to mitigate the effects of climate change on military operations and national security in what officials describe as a comprehensive framework for action through 2020 that calls for using resources more efficiently and acquiring more energy from renewable sources.

The Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan details DoD’s goals for taking sensible and measured steps to mitigate the risk on operations posed by such climate change effects as flooding, surging sea levels, severe weather and extreme temperatures, by “managing the unavoidable and preparing for the possible,” officials said in announcing the plan’s release.
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The report explains how climate change could directly affect military installations and operations, noting “some of the department’s low-lying coastal installations are threatened by coastal erosion and inundation due to sea level rise.”

Hagel has highlighted the Hampton Roads area in Virginia -- home to the largest concentration of U.S. military sites in the world -- as one area under threat. “We see recurrent flooding today, and we are beginning to work to address a projected sea level rise of 1.5 feet over the next 20 to 50 years,” he said in releasing the department’s 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap earlier this year.
(snip)

In addition, the Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan says conditions such as more frequent extreme heat projected with climate change could limit outdoor military training, potentially affecting readiness. “There are ‘black flag’ days where when it’s over 90 degrees [and] you can’t have the guys running for their training,” Conger explained. “It affects live-fire training in that if it’s particularly dry, you can’t use live fire because it’s more likely to set off a fire.”

A comprehensive review of all U.S. installations will be conducted to assess the potential impact that climate change could have on the thousands of buildings, bases and other sites owned by the department.

In addition, the report lays out how the department will use a wide range of practices -- including reducing energy demand -- that, along with efforts by partner nations, are intended to move military operations away from vulnerabilities such as relying on traditional petroleum and electricity networks, resources that increasingly are at risk in some parts of the world.
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[Chemisse]

1. Good idea to plan for this, BUT

It would be far better for the federal government to be making detailed plans on how to halt global warming, or at least blunt its effects.

This is all just going to get worse and worse. No military can plan for what is coming if we don't do something now.