National Security Linked to Climate Change in U.S. Report : Red, Green, and Blue

National Security Linked to Climate Change in U.S. Report

Written by Heidi Suydam

Published on June 29th, 2008

Posted in Center, Climate Change, Editor's Choice, red green and blue

A new assessment by the National Intelligence Council — with input from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies — treats climate change as a security threat.

In a classified report, US Intelligence Agencies have suggested an indirect link between climate change and national security. As NPR news correspondents Ari Shapiro and Tom Gjelton discussed the report Wednesday, June 25^th they explained the “indirect link” and the classified status of the report.

The report suggests the U.S. is capable of handling the impacts of climate change and could even benefit in ways such as longer growing seasons for farmers. On an international level, due to humanitarian disasters and political unrest likely to be a result of climate change, our national security could be at risk.

Tom Gjelton reports that both Democrats and Republicans are trying to use the findings of this report to benefit each side of the political spectrum. Democrats using this as a way to strengthen their efforts to gain funding for programs that support alternative energy and energy independence. Republicans focusing on the speculation aspect of the report and the use of open source materials to do the analysis.

An important point to remember according to Mr. Gjelton is that analysis such as this one are done often by U.S. Intelligence Agencies. They regularly look at multiple scenarios to determine possible outcomes and our ability to respond. Diplomatic reasons are cited for the Classified status of the report, which is classified and the lowest level of classification. He stated that due to some harsh statements about some countries and their ability to handle the effects of Global Warming would be the probable diplomatic reasoning behind the classification.

Photo Credit: Softpix Techie via Flickr, Creative Commons License

Tags: climate change, global warming, National Security

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