Perspective: Climate threatsU.S. Military Precariously Unprepared for Climate Threats, War College & Retired Brass Warn

Published 23 December 2019

A series of climate-related disasters has paralyzed the strategic capabilities of several U.S military bases in recent years. David Hasemyer writes that it has exposed the military’s vulnerability to extreme weather, shining light on its failure to prepare adequately and on the consequences this lack of preparation could have for U.S. national security.

A series of climate-related disasters has paralyzed the strategic capabilities of several U.S military bases in recent years. David Hasemyer writes in Inside Climate News that it has exposed the military’s vulnerability to extreme weather, shining light on its failure to prepare adequately and on the consequences this lack of preparation could have for U.S. national security.

Four examples:

·  Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska, home to the U.S. Strategic Command, was incapacitated by historic flooding which swept through the Midwest in March. More than 130 structures were destroyed, and the cost of rebuilding has hit $1 billion and could go higher.

·  Hurricane Michael, a massive Category 5 storm, wiped out Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida in 2018, damaging 17 grounded F-22 stealth fighters and causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.

·  Heat-related illnesses in the military are also on the rise, putting service members’ lives at risk, a 2019 investigation by InsideClimate News and NBC News showed.

·  The Government Accountability Office, in a recent report to Congress, wrote that climate change make U.S. military operations overseas more difficult and challenging as the U.S. armed forces face extreme weather; sea level rise; the risk of diminishing water supplies; changing disease patterns; and crop failures which could destabilize a country and cause waves of migration.

Hasemyer writes:

Yet the Defense Department, now facing a presidential administration that rejects science and ignores climate risks, has been slow to respond, and that’s raising concerns across the military and from Congress’s watchdog agency and military think tanks. In a series of reports this year, they questioned the military’s readiness, offering foreboding conclusions that climate change poses significant threats to national security, military preparedness and personnel safety—threats they say the military is not fully equipped to handle.

A recent U.S. Army War College study concluded: “The Department of Defense is precariously underprepared for the national security implications of climate change-induced global security challenges.”

Hasemyer adds:

Although the Defense Department identified climate change as a threat to its operations and installations in 2010, the agency remains largely paralyzed when it comes to designing a comprehensive strategy addressing the effects of a changing climate as a national security issue with potential impacts to the department’s missions, operational plans, and installations, according to the GAO.

The GAO found that the Defense Department’s assessment of extreme weather and climate change risks relied on past experience rather than an analysis of future vulnerabilities based on climate projections. The department’s designs for new construction also generally failed to consider climate projections, it said.