Climate unreadinessDoD “Precariously Underprepared” for Security Challenges of Climate Change
The United States Army War College recently released a report exploring the broad impact climate change will have on national security and U.S. Army operations, and offering what it describes as urgent recommendations. The second sentence of the report captures the report’s tone and argument: “The Department of Defense is precariously underprepared for the national security implications of climate change-induced global security challenges.”
The United States Army War College recently released a report exploring the broad impact climate change will have on national security and U.S. Army operations, and offering what it describes as urgent recommendations.
The second sentence of the report captures the report’s tone and argument: “The Department of Defense is precariously underprepared for the national security implications of climate change-induced global security challenges.”
The Center for Climate & Security’s Mariah Furtek writes that the report details the most pressing threats climate change poses to U.S. national security: severe weather events; mass migration; diminishing global freshwater supplies; changing disease vectors; Arctic competition; stress on the U.S. power grid and nuclear reactors; and sea-level rise.
The report discusses not only these broader climate security risks, but also focuses on the U.S. Army, highlighting how diminished freshwater supplies jeopardize existing hydration practices. The Army currently relies heavily on bottled water and local wells in the theater of operation to hydrate troops when they are deployed. The Army lacks in-house hydration capacity: The Brigade Combat Teams, for example, have not been able to support their own water needs since 2015.
Reliance on external sources for water, however, poses a serious threat to Army mobility and capacity. As environments around the world grow hotter, this threat expands. “The U.S. Army is precipitously close to mission failure concerning hydration of the force in contested arid environments,” the report says.
Melting ice in the Arctic is opening a new zone of competition over Arctic transit routes and natural resources. The report draws attention to Russia’s ongoing renovation of its Soviet-era Arctic bases and expansion of its “Arctic Army.”
The report also note the added burden on the Army when it is called on to respond to domestic and foreign infectious disease outbreaks. The Army must thus prepare for an increase in frequency and intensity of these disease outbreaks as changing disease vectors and a warmer, more humid climate amplify tickborne diseases and malaria.
