Climate Change Could Spark Wars Worldwide

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that drastically changing weather patterns could promote instability around the world, especially in areas that are already dealing with conflict. Environmental groups have been saying so for years, and now U.S. spies are warning the government that global warming could lead to the collapse of governments and the creation of terrorist safe havens.

From Inside Defense, via Wired:

In addition to examining how weather could add stress to governments with a weak grip on power … the authors mulled a spectrum of second- and third-order consequences for Washington policymakers to consider — including indirect security concerns like impacts on economies, energy, social unrest and migration.

Foreign-policy concerns were also weighed, including how flooding, rising water levels or drought might create humanitarian crises. Also examined was how extreme weather events could challenge the response capabilities of governments around the world.

Though the Bush administration has done everything they could to suppress the knowledge that climate change is actually happening and will get worse, the nation’s military leaders have taken the strategic implications very seriously. Last Wednesday, leading spies testified on Capitol Hill about the report.

The panel who spoke to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the Intelligence Community Management Subcommittee included retired army generals and ‘geoengineering’ proponents along with a global warming skeptic put in place by Republicans on the Intelligence Committee, who were opposed to the report in the first place.

That’s right, Republicans are still – even after all of the information and dire predictions that have come out – denying that climate change is real. Amazing.

Link [Wired]
Photo credit: Darfur Refugees, via Wikimedia Commons

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