Ky, Ind. lawmakers hit Pentagon on climate

[Disir]

The United States military doesn't see climate change as a hoax. It has viewed global warming as a threat to national security for years, despite a political divide largely along partisan lines that may be narrowing.

As the Department of Defense steps up its planning and preparations, however, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, including lawmakers in Kentucky and Indiana, are trying to block the way.

The Pentagon concern about climate change goes back at least more than a decade, fearing a global warming threat "as a multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world."

Regardless of any immediate and ongoing battles, two years ago, for example, Watchdog Earth reported the military concluded that "the impacts of climate change may increase the frequency, scale, and complexity of future missions, including defense support to civil authorities while at the same time undermining the capacity of our domestic installations to support training activities."

"Our actions to increase energy and water security, including investments in energy efficiency, new technologies, and renewable energy sources, will increase the resiliency of our installations and help mitigate these effects."

The military has worried about everything from low-lying military bases and airfields that could be flooded out as sea levels rise to political destabilization during crises caused by different forms of climate disruption, such as loss of drinking water supplies or extreme weather.

Climate change will aggravate problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions that threaten stability in a number of countries, according to another report from the Defense Department sent to Congress last year.

Like the Boy Scouts, the military is saying, "Be prepared." But not everyone is listening.
Ky, Ind. lawmakers hit Pentagon on climate

That's an interesting little read.

 

[SwimExpert]

The United States military doesn't see climate change as a hoax.

The US military also thinks that the four in hand knot is a professional way to tie a necktie. Unless it has to do with how to kill someone, I don't put much stock into what the US military thinks.

 

[OKTexas]

The Pentagon parroting the propaganda of the CIC, who would have thunk? LOL

 

[flacaltenn]

The Pentagon parroting the propaganda of the CIC, who would have thunk? LOL

They were pretty much ordered to do it. I'm sure that Global change of 0.5deg in our lifetimes is just fomenting anger and violence in EVERY region of the globe.. We've pretty much descended into the Dark Ages when something like that is blamed for all the "hot zones" in the world today..

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

The Pentagon being concerned about global warming.....err I mean climate change worries me. Wait, it's actually hot this year so are we back to global warming? Just need to be on top of the latest talking points.

 

[waltky]

Granny been readin' in Revelation where it says it gonna get hot fer 5 months, den Jesus comin' back...

WMO: Climate Change Causing More Intense, Frequent Heat Waves
July 26, 2016 — The World Meteorological Organization said evidence is growing that links more intense and more frequent heat waves to climate change.

Heat waves that have gripped large parts of the Middle East and central and eastern United States since last week have reached temperatures far exceeding the seasonal averages. The World Meteorological Organization says the blistering 54 degrees Celsius reached Thursday at Mitrabah, Kuwait, is probably the highest ever reached in the Eastern hemisphere and Asia.

A man cools off his dogs on a fountain during a heat wave called 'Heat Dome' in the Manhattan borough of New York​

The hottest temperature ever recorded was in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California at 56.7 degrees Celsius on July 10, 1913. While temperatures elsewhere in the United States have not reached those heights, WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis said they have soared to 38 degrees Celsius. “That is the actual temperatures," she said. "Once you factor in humidity and how it actually feels to you as a person, the temperatures are even higher. So, we are talking about 43 to 46 degrees.”

Nullis said a unique feature of the U.S. heat wave and that of many others is that the temperatures do not drop much at night. She said this offers little relief from the oppressive heat and can pose serious health risks, especially to the elderly. “Over the past 50 years, hot days, hot nights and heat waves have become more frequent," she said. "We expect them to become more frequent still as this century progresses and this is obviously due to climate change.” The World Meteorological Organization conducted a study last year, which found that many extreme events over the past five years were a result of climate change. In the case of heat waves, the agency says they increased by a factor of 10 or more.

WMO: Climate Change Causing More Intense, Frequent Heat Waves

 

[waltky]

Coastal military bases at risk from climate change...

Climate change risk threatens 18 U.S. military sites: study
Wed Jul 27, 2016 | WASHINGTON - Rising sea levels due to hurricanes and tidal flooding intensified by climate change will put military bases along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast at risk, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Nonprofit group the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed 18 military installations that represent more than 120 coastal bases nationwide to weigh the impact of climate change on their operations. Faster rates of sea level rises in the second half of this century could mean that tidal flooding will become a daily occurrence for some installations, pushing useable land needed for military training and testing into tidal zones, said the report titled "The U.S. Military on the Front Lines of Rising Seas."

Former United States Marine Corps recruits march past their drill instructors after emblem graduating ceremonies from the Marine Corps depot in Parris Island, South Carolina​

By 2050, most of these sites will be hit by more than 10 times the number of floods than at present, the report said, and at least half of them will experience daily floods. Four of those - including the Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida, and the Marine Corps recruit depot in South Carolina - could lose between 75 and 95 percent of their land in this century. The report said the Pentagon already recognizes the threat of climate change on its military installations but warned that more resources and monitoring systems are needed to boost preparedness.

But last month, the U.S. House appropriations committee passed an amendment that blocked funding for the Pentagon's climate adaptation strategy. "Our defense leadership has a special responsibility to protect the sites that hundreds of thousands of Americans depend on for their livelihoods and millions depend on for national security," the report said.

Climate change risk threatens 18 U.S. military sites: study