Climate & securityLawmakers tell Pentagon to redo climate change report
Earlier this month, the Pentagon, in compliance with a congressional mandate, released a landmark report which identified the 79 American military installations most vulnerable to the “effects of a changing climate.” Several Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee welcomed the report – but at the same time harshly criticized it for failing to include details requested by Congress, among them the estimates by each of the armed services of the cost of protecting or replacing the ten most vulnerable military bases.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon, in compliance with a congressional mandate, released a landmark report which identified the 79 American military installations most vulnerable to the “effects of a changing climate.” The 22-page report acknowledged the serious national security implications of climate change contradicting President Donald Trump’s public global-warming skepticism.
Several Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee welcomed the report – but at the same time harshly criticized it for failing to include details requested by Congress, among them the estimates by each of the armed services of the cost of protecting or replacing the ten most vulnerable military bases.
The lawmakers on Wednesday sent a letter demanding a do-over of the report.
The tree Democratic members of the House Armed Services panel urged Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to put together another report which would “thoroughly and clearly addresses” the criteria requested by Congress.
“They clearly ignored the requirement in the law,” Rep. Jim Langevin (D-Rhode Island), one of the signatories, said in a press conference. He described himself as “deeply disappointed” with the original report. “The report they issued was completely unsatisfactory.” Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, adding that the report carried “about as much value as a phonebook.”
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, demanded another report that “rigorously confronts the realities of our warming planet.”
Mother Jones notes that there were some striking omissions in the report.. No Marine Corps installations were mentioned, for example, despite the fact that just four months before the report was released, Hurricane Florence slammed into Camp Lejeune, the Marines’ biggest base on the East Coast, costing more than $3 billion in damages. Another omission is Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, where Hurricane Michael devastated 95 percent of the buildings in October. It was not included among the Air Force’s most vulnerable bases.
Earlier that year, the Washington Post had reported that defense officials removed nearly two-dozen references to climate change from a draft survey of installations vulnerable to the threat.
