NEW YORK TIMES - Global Warming Called Security Threat

(OPINION BUT PARTIAL FACT)

The effects of global warming, the study said, could lead to large-scale migrations, increased border tensions, the spread of disease and conflicts over food and water. All could lead to direct involvement by the United States military.

The report recommends that climate change be integrated into the nation’s security strategies and says the United States “should commit to a stronger national and international role to help stabilize climate changes at levels that will avoid significant disruption to global security and stability.”

The report, called “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change,” was commissioned by the Center for Naval Analyses, a government-financed research group, and written by a group of retired generals and admirals called the Military Advisory Board.

In March, a report from the Global Business Network, which advises intelligence agencies and the Pentagon on occasion, concluded, among other things, that rising seas and more powerful storms could eventually generate unrest as crowded regions like Bangladesh’s sinking delta become less habitable.

One of the authors of the report, Peter Schwartz, a consultant who studies climate risks and other trends for the Defense Department and other clients, said the climate system, jogged by a century-long buildup of heat-trapping gases, was likely to rock between extremes that could wreak havoc in poor countries with fragile societies.

US SENATE DICK DURBIN WEBSITE - DURBIN, HAGEL: GLOBAL WARMING POSES SERIOUS THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

(OPINION BUT PARTIAL FACT)

Environmental changes caused by global warming represent a potential threat multiplier for instability around the world. Scarce water, for example, may exacerbate conflict along economic, ethnic, or sectarian divisions. Water shortages, food insecurity, or flooding - all of which may occur as a result of rising global temperatures - could also displace people, forcing them to migrate. The NIE will look beyond the short-term and require the intelligence community to analyze these issues in the context of the next thirty years. The legislation will also fund additional research by the Department of Defense in order to examine the impact of climate change on military operations.

A number of military and intelligence experts agree that the Durbin-Hagel bill will serve a critical role in protecting U.S. security interests. "This bipartisan legislation takes on an important emerging policy issue- the impact of climate change on national security," said Gen Charles F. Wald, former Deputy Commander of Headquarters U.S. European Command. "I support its call for a National Intelligence Estimate of the topic and authorizing the Secretary of Defense to conduct further research on the military impact of climate change." General Wald is a member of a high level military advisory board studying potential national security impacts of climate change with the Center for Naval Analyses. The report will be released later this Spring.

LIVE SCIENCE - Global Warming a National Security Issue

(OPINION/THEORY BUT PARTIAL CONFIRMED WITH DATA)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Global warming poses a "serious threat to America's national security'' with terrorism worsening and the U.S. will likely be dragged into fights over water and other shortages, top retired military leaders warn in a new report.

Joining calls already made by scientists and environmental activists, the retired U.S. military leaders, including the former Army chief of staff and President Bush's former chief Middle East peace negotiator, called on the U.S. government to make major cuts in emissions of gases that cause global warming.

The report warned that in the next 30 to 40 years there will be wars over water, increased hunger instability from worsening disease and rising sea levels and global warming-induced refugees. "The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism,'' the 35-page report predicted.