Bill Briggs of NBC News reports, Four-Star Warning: Generals Dub Climate Change a Security Risk, and calling it “a catalyst for conflict” for the "increasingly decentralized power structures around the world."
Repeating a similar message to that which we have from the IPCC and the special White House study on climate change, former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said this "latest assessments should serve as a bipartisan call to action, asserting that climate change is no longer a future threat but “is taking place now.”
A new report from a panel of former Pentagon leaders calls climate change a direct threat to national security and the U.S. economy, as extreme weather stands to stretch troops thin, spark unrest in unstable regions, and unravel global networks of trade and resources.
The authors –- 16 retired three- and four-star generals and admirals who compose the CNA Corporation’s Military Advisory Board (MAB) -- blame a warming planet for, in part, aggravating tensions among some nations.
“Political posturing and budgetary woes cannot be allowed to inhibit discussion and debate over what so many believe to be a salient national security concern for our nation,” the generals and admirals wrote. “… Time and tide wait for no one.”
The group sees increasing competition for resources in the Artic regions as melting ice opens access to the area.
These 20 top military officers warn that the climate change that is projected by climate change models will place "key elements of our National Power at risk and threaten our homeland security,” as well as "threaten major sectors of the U.S. economy."
They identify threats to our national power, including our infrastructure, and our ability to maintain our military readiness say Chertoff and Panetta, according to Bill Briggs.
These are about the most severe warnings I've heard about our national security since the days of the discussions of the "clear and present dangers" back before I was born in the 1950s. Will the Republican and Tea Party climate deniers finally wake up, stop their absurd posturing, and finally join us for a serious discussion of what we are going to do in response to warnings of this magnitude from the most credible military officers our country has?
If not, they should stand aside and let the rest of us address these top national security issues confronting our nation.
The old expression in a national security crisis used to be "lead, follow, our get the hell out of the way!"
Democrats are going to have to start taking this kind of attitude and stop molly-coddling these dim-witted "reality deniers" who seem to think "climate denial" is some kind of fund-raising opportunity or game of "let's-drive-the-liberals-bonko."
The time for the kinds of sheer irresponsible and intentional stupidity that we've been hearing from the likes of Senator Marco Rubio is well past over. It is one thing to be stupid in the way Governor Rick Perry apparently is stupid - he apparently simply does not have enough neurons, or basic science education to comprehend foundation concepts of the argument, and can not help his ignorance. This kind of stupid climate denier should just be quite and get the hell out of the way.
But, folks like Senator Marco Rubio is a different kind of case, as evidenced by his 2008 support in the Florida House for a carbon cap. He has sufficient brain cells, and education to understand perfectly well what is going on with climate change, and what climate change scientist are telling us.
He chooses to shamelessly flip flop his position in order to crassly advance his presidential ambitions in the eyes of the Republican right-wing's climate-denial faction.
This disgraceful blunder will backfire, because the one thing that I believe Republicans do love more than playing the fun game of "let's-drive the-liberals-bonko-by-pretending-we-are-too-stupid-to-understand-cllmate-change" with climate denial, is our country. I know this may annoy some here, but I really do believe most conservative, Republicans, Tea Party Members, and Libertarians really do love our country, and care about our national security just as much as we do.
I predict that when they hear top generals of this degree of credibility declare climate change represent threats to America's national security of this magnitude we will see them snap out of his game relatively quickly and join us in addressing these challenges to our national security challenges in bipartisan ways.
And, some of them might even confess that they were not anywhere near as stupid as they have appeared to be, but rather just enjoyed "jerking our liberal chains" or "tweaking our circuits" as my young son like to say about his mother" for the pleasure of seeing liberal weeping and gnashing our teeth when it didn't seem to really matter for several more decades. What if different this time around compared to the last 2007 report, is the latest IPCC indicted that climate change is now - not something we can expect in the future.
Once these generals make clear this is a real threat, right now, a growing number of Republicans may toss their silliness aside and we will be able to start moving ahead with serious bipartisan programs to make our country stronger. Those political "leaders like Senator Marco Rubio who knew the facts, but choose to expose his own lack of integrity in order to pursue political opportunism at the cost of our national interest will be rejected by voters on both the right and the left.
This important study my highly respected military officers will represent a watershed moment in the changing tides of our national debate on climate change. From this point on we should start seeing more serous bipartisan progress.