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“There are few easy answers, but one thing is clear: the current trajectory of climatic change presents a strategically-significant risk to U.S. national security, and inaction is not a viable option,” said a statement signed by the security advisors and published by the Center for Climate and Security in Washington.
The advisors include retired General Anthony Zinni, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, retired Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the U.S. Pacific Command until last year, Geoffrey Kemp, President Ronald Reagan’s national security advisor, Dov Zakheim, George W. Bush’s Under-Secretary of Defense and Army Chief of Staff General Gordon Sullivan who served under U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The advisors are calling on the next U.S. president to create a cabinet-level position to deal with climate change-related security issues.
Another report, from another panel of retired officers, warned that extreme weather is threatening U.S. coastlines and military installations.
“The complex relationship between sea level rise, storm surge and global readiness and responsiveness must be explored down to the operational level, across the Services and Joint forces, and up to a strategic level as well,” the report noted.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that Arctic sea ice this summer shrank to its second lowest level since scientists started to monitor it by satellite. Scientists say this is another ominous signal of global warming.
Here is the rest of the Associated Press article:
Center director Mark Serreze said this year’s level technically was 3,800 square miles (10,000 square kilometers) less than 2007, but that’s so close the two years are essentially tied.
Even though this year didn’t set a record, “we have reinforced the overall downward trend. There is no evidence of recovery here,” Serreze said.
“We’ve always known that the Arctic is going to be the early warning system for climate change. What we’ve seen this year is reinforcing that.”
This year’s minimum level is nearly 1 million square miles (2.56 million square kilometers) smaller than the 1979 to 2000 average. That’s the size of Alaska and Texas combined.
“It’s a tremendous loss that we’re looking at here,” Serreze said.
It was an unusual year for sea ice in the Arctic, Serreze said.
In the winter, levels were among their lowest ever for the cold season, but then there were more storms than usual over the Arctic during the summer. Those storms normally keep the Arctic cloudy and cooler, but that didn’t keep the sea ice from melting this year, he said.
“Summer weather patterns don’t matter as much as they used to, so we’re kind of entering a new regime,” Serreze said.
Serreze said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Arctic was essentially ice free in the summer by 2030, something that will affect international security.
“The trend is clear and ominous,” National Center for Atmospheric Research senior scientist Kevin Trenberth said in an email. “This is indeed why the polar bear is a poster child for human-induced climate change, but the effects are not just in the Arctic.”
One recent theory divides climate scientists: Melting sea ice in the Arctic may change the jet stream and weather further south, especially in winter.
“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic,” Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said.
“It looks increasingly likely that the dramatic decrease in Arctic sea ice is impacting weather in mid-latitudes and may be at least partly responsible for the more dramatic, persistent and damaging weather anomalies we’ve seen so many of in recent years.”
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