Climate Change Threatens National Security

New ASP Report examines threats to national security from climate change

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Security Project released a new report analyzing the threats to national security both at home and abroad from climate change. As we are seeing by the events of this week, extreme weather – exacerbated by a changing climate – poses clear threats to the United States.

Christine Todd Whitman, ASP Board Member, Former EPA Administrator and Governor of New Jersey, said: "There will be costs to our economic security from climate change — and significant ones at that — if we do nothing but continue business as usual. We are seeing all sorts of issues that come from climate change and we must adapt to them. This summer's drought throughout the Midwest is just the tip on the kind of changes we can expect from a rapidly (in nature's terms) changing climate."

Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, USA (Ret.), ASP Board Member, said: "Climate Change is already a national security imperative. Combatant Commanders are preparing now for the consequences of climate change in their areas of operation. The destabilizing impacts in key regions of the world are indisputable and will likely only worsen in the years ahead."

Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret.), CEO of the American Security Project, said: "One of the most significant challenges to the global security system in the 21st Century will be a changing climate.  Climate change poses a clear and present danger to the United States through its effects on our global allies as well as its direct effects on our agriculture, infrastructure, economy and public health. The impact of Hurricane Sandy shows that this is a threat today. The following report aims to move past the current debate about climate change and towards a real, informed discussion about its security implications—both global and domestic."

Read the full report here.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN SECURITY PROJECT

The American Security Project is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges.

For more information, visit www.americansecurityproject.org.

SOURCE American Security Project