3/9/10

Today President Obama is meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators to discuss the issue of climate change and energy legislation.  Not only is comprehensive legislation essential to creating millions of American jobs and transitioning us towards a new clean energy economy, but bipartisan national security experts also agree that it is a critical national security priority. Such a move by the United States Congress is important for there to be sustainable progress - both domestically and internationally - on carbon reduction.  While such legislation would address many of the security concerns expressed by our nation's military and national security experts, extreme conservatives continue to ignore the warnings about this threat and instead insist on "doing nothing."  This is not how America will address the twin challenge of climate change and energy security.

Addressing twin-challenges of climate change and energy security is a critical national security imperative. As key Members of Congress prepare to hear the President's case for passing energy and climate change legislation, it is crucial that Congress recognizes the national security implications of this initiative:

The Department of Defense's Quadrennial Defense Review stated unambiguously that climate change is a national security threat: "While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world...managing the national security effects of climate change will require DoD to work collaboratively, through a whole-of-government approach, with both traditional allies and new partners." [QDR, 2/1/10]

DoD Deputy Undersecretary for Installations and the Environment Dorothy Robyn: Reducing energy dependence and carbon emissions is a major defense priority. Think Progress's Wonk Room reports on efforts by the Defense department to reduce carbon emissions: "Defense is committing to cutting emissions in non-combat areas by 34%. These non-combat installations and fleet ‘account for around a quarter of Defense's energy consumption and roughly 40% of its emissions,' according to Dorothy Robyn, Deputy Undersecretary for Installations and the Environment: In 2008, the department spent $20 billion on its energy bill, and another $14 billion in 2009 after oil prices slipped. While the department will report energy use from its combat, or operational activities, Robyn said the sector would not be subject to a reduction target." [Brad Johnson, Wonk Room, 1/29/10]

American Security Project Board Member Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret.): Climate change "will exacerbate tensions and conflict in already unstable regions."  In a briefing for the 2010 Clean Energy, Jobs and Security Forum, Retired Brigadier General Stephen Cheney explained the consequences of climate change for global security: "Water scarcity, decreased agricultural production, mass human migrations, and the spread of disease, among other things - will exacerbate tensions and conflict in already unstable regions.  Extremists will exploit these changes to undermine existing governments and order...In much of the developing world, people already live close to the edge. Millions live on marginal land that is vulnerable to natural disasters.   In fact, according to a recent report by the International Organization of Migration, it is estimated that between 25 million and one billion people could be displaced by climate change over the next 40 years." [General Stephen Cheney, American Security Project, 1/27/10]

The Central Intelligence Agency has also recognized the threat we face from climate change and recently opened a new intelligence center that will focus solely on this issue.  The CIA announced in a press release that, "The Central Intelligence Agency is launching the Center on Climate Change and National Security as the focal point for its work on the subject. The Center is a small unit led by senior specialists from the Directorate of Intelligence and the Directorate of Science and Technology. Its charter is not the science of climate change, but the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources. The Center will provide support to American policymakers as they negotiate, implement, and verify international agreements on environmental issues. That is something the CIA has done for years. ‘Decision makers need information and analysis on the effects climate change can have on security. The CIA is well positioned to deliver that intelligence,' said Director Leon Panetta." [CIA, 9/25/09]

Congress needs to act to demonstrate American leadership in the global fight against climate change.  As a report from the Center for American Progress said following the Copenhagen Summit,: "It is time for the U.S. Senate to continue its international leadership role by acting in 2010, which would create millions of jobs, secure energy independence, and boost the economy." And the American Security Project's senior fellow for counterterrorism and defense policy Bernard Finel and policy analyst Justin Rubin write in a recent paper, that congress must act "to address this significant risk to our environment, economy, energy security, health, and national security..."

Former Vice President Al Gore explains that domestic legislation is also important in relation to international negotiations.  Explaining what happened at the Copenhagen conference he says:  "Because the world still relies on leadership from the United States, the failure by the Senate to pass legislation intended to cap American emissions before the Copenhagen meeting guaranteed that the outcome would fall far short of even the minimum needed to build momentum toward a meaningful solution...  China, now the world's largest and fastest-growing source of global-warming pollution, had privately signaled early last year that if the United States passed meaningful legislation, it would join in serious efforts to produce an effective treaty. When the Senate failed to follow the lead of the House of Representatives, forcing the president to go to Copenhagen without a new law in hand, the Chinese balked. With the two largest polluters refusing to act, the world community was paralyzed."  Regarding the potential for a legally binding agreement at Mexico City this year, Saleemul Huq, head of climate change at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development says, "If the U.S. were to come with domestic legislation in place, I think the Chinese and the Indians would be prepared to come forward and agree to something legally binding... They won't be happy -- they'll negotiate -- but I think they'll eventually sign up." [CAP, 12/22/09. ASP, 1/28/10. Al Gore, 2/27/10. Saleemul Huq Business Week, 2/22/10]

Despite bipartisan support for climate legislation, extreme conservatives seek to hijack the agenda, and "do nothing."  National security experts from both parties have come out in strong support of comprehensive climate change legislation.  Retired Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and former Navy Secretary John Warner (R-VA) testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on climate change and global security.  In his testimony, he stated, "Leading military, intelligence, and security experts have publically spoken out that if left unchecked, global warming could increase instability and lead to conflict in already fragile regions of the world. If we ignore these facts, we do so at the peril of our national security and increase the risk to those in uniform who serve our nation. It is for this reason that I firmly believe the U.S. must take a leadership role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions." Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said "It makes perfect sense to me that this amount of carbon pollution over a long period of time has had a detrimental effect on the environment... I do believe pursuing clean air and clean water is a good thing for my generation to do."  He and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) wrote together that, "we agree that climate change is real and threatens our economy and national security. That is why we are advocating aggressive reductions in our emissions of the carbon gases that cause climate change."

Dismissing the warnings of military and national security experts from both sides of the aisle, extreme conservatives continue to deny the reality of climate change in favor of political posturing.  The Chicago Tribune explains, "It wasn't long ago that Marco Rubio and Tim Pawlenty, two of the brightest fresh faces in the Republican Party, supported legislation to limit the greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming. But in recent weeks both have suddenly begun to express doubts about whether burning coal, powering cars with gasoline and other human activities in fact have anything to do with a warming Earth.  The shifts by Rubio and Pawlenty - as well as other prominent Republicans - reflect the rising power of climate change skeptics in the GOP, where global warming is becoming a litmus test for conservatives." As Marc Morano, a former aide to outspoken climate change skeptic Sen. James Inhofe said, "The new political expediency is to be a global warming skeptic."  And in a piece titled, "Congress Should Do the Right Thing-Nothing," the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, advises that "best choice for Washington is none of the above." [John Warner, 7/31/09. John Kerry and Lindsey Graham, NY Times, 10/10/09. Lindsey Graham, via CNS News, 12/18/09. Chicago Tribune, 3/7/10. Heritage Foundation, 3/8/10]

What We're Reading

Iraqi officials announced Monday that 62 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Sunday's parliamentary elections, a total slightly lower than in the 2005 national elections but higher than in last year's provincial elections.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Middle East was not impressed by Iraq's elections.

Calling Washington's ties to Israel "unshakable," Vice President Biden opened talks with Israeli leaders, part of a concerted American effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and keep Israel focused on sanctions against Iran's nuclear program rather than unilateral military action.

Speaking during a surprise visit to Kabul, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that despite recent military successes in southern Afghanistan, a reconciliation effort proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai was unlikely to cause senior Taliban leaders to lay down their arms anytime soon.

Officials and human rights groups in Nigeria sharply increased the count of the dead after a weekend of vicious violence between Muslims and Christians, saying Monday that as many as 500 people - many of them women and children -have been killed near the city of Jos.

A "millennium village" in Kenya is flourishing, but experts wonder whether the results are scalable.

A fierce debate is raging in Berlin over whether the city's $3.4 billion dollar airport is a hip symbol of modernity or a government boondoggle.

European countries are blocking Wall Street banks from lucrative deals to sell government debt worth hundreds of billions of euros in retaliation for their role in the credit crunch.

Brazil announced Monday it would levy a total of $591 million in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods under a ruling against U.S. cotton subsidies granted by the World Trade Organization last year.

The International Monetary Fund on Monday unveiled plans for an African "green fund," an effort to address what its director said is an unfilled need to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

Commentary of the Day

Bartle Breese Bull, a journalist who covered Iraq from 2004-2008, says that in Baghdad, politics are much more confused than they were in the 2005 election. And that's good news.

James Traub argues that America "stinks" at nation-building.

Jonah Goldberg shows how throughout the developing world, women's right are being trampled.