Posted on Oct 15, 2014
The ways global climate change threats may affect servicemembers
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Climate change is now being looked at as a national security threat. Rising global temperatures, increasing sea levels and intensifying weather activities will challenge global stability, says Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. The changes could even lead to food and water shortages, disease and clashes over refugees and resources.
On Monday, Hagel unveiled a “Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap” to several defense ministers at an international meeting in Peru. He stressed leaders inside and outside the military need to set aside the intense political debate over the issue. Hagel says our armed forces have to prepare for all possible threats to keep our country secure. This includes our military bracing for a global warming crisis that will cause sea levels to rise 12 to 18 inches over the next 20 to 50 years.
Flooding and erosion will threaten military installations’ infrastructure and training areas, including port facilities such as San Diego, Hawaii and Norfolk, Virginia. The number of humanitarian assistance missions will increase. Climate changes can create new health risks by expanding infectious disease zones and boosting health service demands. Bases in the West will have to consider new water management programs to handle droughts, as dust can ruin military equipment and increase equipment costs.
Hagel outlined a list of potential changes for the Defense Department, including how all branches will be affected:
Marine Corps: Rising sea levels could make it harder to mount amphibious landings.
Air Force: Changing weather patterns could make it more difficult to fly for investigation and surveillance missions.
Navy: New ship technology might be needed to maneuver in the Arctic icy waters, in facing new zones of competition as new fossil fuel and mineral deposits become accessible.
Army: Soldiers may need to help manage instability caused by flooding in densely populated coastal areas, where mass-migration creates chaos and a breeding ground for extremist groups.
National Guard: More severe weather, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, will cause serious damage that will require more support from members.
The Pentagon is assessing the vulnerability of more than 7,000 bases and installations around the world. As the assessment winds down, leaders are reviewing all budget plans, war game scenarios and off-the-shelf operational contingency plans to determine if revisions are needed in light of projected impact of global warming.
Can key decision-makers put aside their political differences and focus on preparing for climate changes? Given what Hagel has outlined, how will preparing for global warming threats affect you and your service?
On Monday, Hagel unveiled a “Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap” to several defense ministers at an international meeting in Peru. He stressed leaders inside and outside the military need to set aside the intense political debate over the issue. Hagel says our armed forces have to prepare for all possible threats to keep our country secure. This includes our military bracing for a global warming crisis that will cause sea levels to rise 12 to 18 inches over the next 20 to 50 years.
Flooding and erosion will threaten military installations’ infrastructure and training areas, including port facilities such as San Diego, Hawaii and Norfolk, Virginia. The number of humanitarian assistance missions will increase. Climate changes can create new health risks by expanding infectious disease zones and boosting health service demands. Bases in the West will have to consider new water management programs to handle droughts, as dust can ruin military equipment and increase equipment costs.
Hagel outlined a list of potential changes for the Defense Department, including how all branches will be affected:
Marine Corps: Rising sea levels could make it harder to mount amphibious landings.
Air Force: Changing weather patterns could make it more difficult to fly for investigation and surveillance missions.
Navy: New ship technology might be needed to maneuver in the Arctic icy waters, in facing new zones of competition as new fossil fuel and mineral deposits become accessible.
Army: Soldiers may need to help manage instability caused by flooding in densely populated coastal areas, where mass-migration creates chaos and a breeding ground for extremist groups.
National Guard: More severe weather, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, will cause serious damage that will require more support from members.
The Pentagon is assessing the vulnerability of more than 7,000 bases and installations around the world. As the assessment winds down, leaders are reviewing all budget plans, war game scenarios and off-the-shelf operational contingency plans to determine if revisions are needed in light of projected impact of global warming.
Can key decision-makers put aside their political differences and focus on preparing for climate changes? Given what Hagel has outlined, how will preparing for global warming threats affect you and your service?
Climate Change
Command Post
Environment
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 48
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With ISIS (ISIL, IS, whatever) increasing their influence, and apparent relevance in the Arab region, the uncertainty of the role of the military in Africa regarding the Ebola threat, and ALL of this in the face of persistent reductions in military spending through sequestration that are eroding our readiness, how in hell can "global warming" rise to the top of the Defense Secretary's talking points?
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PO1 Bernard Killinger
Another question. Why does the Rally Point Team focus so many articles on leftist, BS?
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SSgt (Join to see)
And with all these drastic cuts, heathcare (reformed)Ebola, The Middle East conflicts how does he have the time.
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SFC Michael Hasbun
Is terrorism really more of a threat than the planet becoming uninhabitable? If we don't worry about our planet, there won't be any other considerations... At least not for our species...
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Since climate change is a naturally occuring cycle of our planet, it won't. It'll take a few hundred, if not thousand, years to have any real profound effect and then after a few more millenia, our future ancestors will be crying about how cold it's getting and call it global freezing.
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Climate change is a fact, man caused climate "disruption" or "global warming" is a bunch of nonsense that is completely unsupported by actual data from any non-government funded or non-partisan entity.
This false premise will affect the military in a negative as we waste more than the usual amount of money on unsustainable "green" fuels and handing out R&D grants for solar powered tactical vehicles. Pay raises will become a thing of the past as the force becomes ever more degraded and hollowed out until we reach total combat ineffectiveness. Then we all sit around and smoke dope, eat granola, and question our gender, all while wearing hemp sandals until our country is taken from us by our foreign enemies. The domestic enemies have already won while we ignored our oaths and let the defense of the Constitution take second place to political correctness.
This false premise will affect the military in a negative as we waste more than the usual amount of money on unsustainable "green" fuels and handing out R&D grants for solar powered tactical vehicles. Pay raises will become a thing of the past as the force becomes ever more degraded and hollowed out until we reach total combat ineffectiveness. Then we all sit around and smoke dope, eat granola, and question our gender, all while wearing hemp sandals until our country is taken from us by our foreign enemies. The domestic enemies have already won while we ignored our oaths and let the defense of the Constitution take second place to political correctness.
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SSgt (Join to see)
SFC (Join to see) That is your opinion and other like-minded sycophants with a political end in sight. If Einstein and other scientists had reservations about their own work, then we can call nothing fact in science. Even Gravity and let's say the quadratic equations. Most of the more complicated theories have holes and any HONEST scientist knows that.
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SFC (Join to see)
Right, climatologists are mostly NOT honest. Especially if honesty about man causing climate change doesn't fit the narrative that supports the agencies that provide the money that funds their research. If you consider deliberately skewing data, ignoring facts, and outright lying to be research. I'm all for green sustainable energy, I want to put a wind and solar setup at my house. But it has to actually work, and be sustainable. Large scale solar and wind power wouldn't exist if it wasn't subsidized, which is why it should be allowed to go under until they can figure out how to make it efficient AND affordable. Making conventional sources of power generation prohibitively expensive hurts us all both with higher electrical and gas costs, and with higher taxes to pay for subsidies for non-viable green power. Solyndra ring a bell? Forcing the military to waste money on green fuels when we are already cash strapped is just adding insult to injury, because the military doesn't have a choice.
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PO1 John Pokrzywa
We all know the data was being fudged intentionally in favor of global warming theory by UN funded scientists. Their emails were hacked, and they were caught red handed. However, in typical fashion, the media outrage was that UN scientists' emails were being hacked, not that they were lying.
Go figure. Doesn't make sense, until one starts seeing all the new "green" taxes and new regulations being made, in honor of this new false idol they are propping up in front of everyone. It's money and power, and very little to do with what they say it is.
Go figure. Doesn't make sense, until one starts seeing all the new "green" taxes and new regulations being made, in honor of this new false idol they are propping up in front of everyone. It's money and power, and very little to do with what they say it is.
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