A army police officer walks close to a destroyed gate in Tyndall Air Power Base in Florida within the aftermath of Hurricane Michael on Oct. 12, 2018. The Pentagon says local weather change is a nationwide safety concern.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
A army police officer walks close to a destroyed gate in Tyndall Air Power Base in Florida within the aftermath of Hurricane Michael on Oct. 12, 2018. The Pentagon says local weather change is a nationwide safety concern.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
The Division of Protection says local weather change is already difficult U.S. nationwide safety in concrete methods.
In a report last week, the Pentagon discovered that “growing temperatures; altering precipitation patterns; and extra frequent, intense, and unpredictable excessive climate situations brought on by local weather change are exacerbating present dangers” for the U.S.
For instance, current excessive climate has value billions in damages to U.S. army installations, together with Tyndall Air Force Base and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Additionally, the army has bases on Guam and the Marshall Islands which can be susceptible to rising seas. And China might be able to benefit from U.S. susceptibility, the Pentagon says.
Deputy Secretary of Protection Kathleen Hicks tells NPR that Congress ought to be paying consideration because the Biden administration tries to put together a clean energy plan that Sen. Joe Manchin will help. The Democrat from West Virginia stymied an earlier effort.
“We have to have the remainder of the federal government with us. We will not do it simply right here at DOD,” she tells Morning Version.
Interview highlights have been edited for readability.
Interview Highlights
On examples of how local weather change is affecting the U.S. army
Local weather change is admittedly growing the quantity and frequency of missions that we’re executing right here at DOD. Let’s take a look at firefighting. Extreme drought has led to growing hearth seasons, lengthening of fireplace seasons. It is to the purpose the place our Nationwide Guard bureau chief has began to speak about hearth season turning into hearth yr. And actually, we’ve got within the final 5 years gone from about 14,000 personnel days for U.S. Nationwide Guard members to, in 2021, about 176,000 particular person days spent simply on firefighting.
You too can take into consideration the growing openness of the Arctic area. China and Russia and plenty of international locations are up there now within the Arctic and creating a brand new geopolitical house that did not used to exist — house for competitors in an space that we’ve got to ensure we’re monitoring. Each for search and rescue — simply for easy business fleets which can be going via there the place we’re defending freedom of the seas. That will increase mission house for us.
On the challenges of climate migration
Local weather migration is totally affecting the US instantly. … At our southern border via the Northern Triangle international locations [of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras] the place farmers cannot develop crops, their conventional approaches to sustaining livelihood are very challenged. We have additionally seen that occur, in fact, from Africa going up into Europe, different areas of the world.
In case you swap your lens to someplace just like the Pacific area the place the problem will not be a lot drought, it is about sea degree rise. There are Pacific island nations that are in an existential crisis, and so they could go underwater. Consider Bangladesh, consider parts of India, Indonesia, very populated international locations the place that scale of local weather migration potential is critical.
How army installations and repair members are affected
We’re completely trying on the implications of local weather change on our installations. I’ll stress that drought can be a big think about and round our army installations out West; sea degree rise principally affecting us on the East Coast and abroad.
So sure, the impact is: Can we even function the place we have invested to function? What sort of mitigations do we’ve got to place in place to cope with these elements? Frequent hearth, lack of energy via frequent storms like we noticed in the deep freeze in Texas. That is very pricey and it takes us away. These forces which can be positioned in these places, they don’t seem to be specializing in mission. They are not flying on their coaching days, maybe, or they don’t seem to be out to sea or getting ready to exit to sea. Fairly, they’re shifting out and in for storm functions. All of these are ways in which we each are decreased in our capability to do our principal mission, and it prices us cash to restore.
On what the army is doing to organize
If there’s one factor we do exceptionally nicely right here at DOD, it is we do plan and we do it very completely, and local weather must be part of how we take into consideration the long run and totally different contingencies we may get known as into. … We’ll be occupied with how we prepare and equip our pressure in a local weather [change] setting. We’re going to ensure we’ve got our set up infrastructure inbuilt a resilient means. We’re going to ensure we’ve got resilient provide chains, that we’re being revolutionary, that we’re tapping into areas like inexperienced expertise right here in the US, and that we’re collaborating with the non-public sector, with companions abroad and different authorities companies in our analysis and growth and methods forward.
Milton Guevara and Kelley Dickens produced and edited the audio interview. James Doubek produced for the net.
