Climate Change Warning From Pentagon

[Chewbacca]

I have no comment.

Link

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Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism

Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.

The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.

An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.

Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change.

Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change.

A group of eminent UK scientists recently visited the White House to voice their fears over global warming, part of an intensifying drive to get the US to treat the issue seriously. Sources have told The Observer that American officials appeared extremely sensitive about the issue when faced with complaints that America's public stance appeared increasingly out of touch.

One even alleged that the White House had written to complain about some of the comments attributed to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, after he branded the President's position on the issue as indefensible.

Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon's internal fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic change.

Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and the first senior figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of terrorism - said: 'If the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then this is an important document indeed.'

Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.

'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.

'You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,' said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.

Already, according to Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.

Randall told The Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate change would create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat.'

Randall added that it was already possibly too late to prevent a disaster happening. 'We don't know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years,' he said.

'The consequences for some nations of the climate change are unbelievable. It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile.'

So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in his campaign.

The fact that Marshall is behind its scathing findings will aid Kerry's cause. Marshall, 82, is a Pentagon legend who heads a secretive think-tank dedicated to weighing risks to national security called the Office of Net Assessment. Dubbed 'Yoda' by Pentagon insiders who respect his vast experience, he is credited with being behind the Department of Defence's push on ballistic-missile defence.

Symons, who left the EPA in protest at political interference, said that the suppression of the report was a further instance of the White House trying to bury evidence of climate change. 'It is yet another example of why this government should stop burying its head in the sand on this issue.'

Symons said the Bush administration's close links to high-powered energy and oil companies was vital in understanding why climate change was received sceptically in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added.

[Grojlach]

According to this report, The Netherlands would be struck by violent storms in 2007, with large parts of land being overtaken by the sea - The Hague for instance would vanish off the map completely.
While I agree that climate changes are a serious danger to humanity, I'd conclude on that bit alone that the report is at times eerily prophetic and way too detailed to take it without any grains of salt.

[ 02-24-2004, 04:02 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Chewbacca]

Oh yes take the original artical I posted with a grain of salt. IMO It heavily bastardizes the spirit of the report in its zest to smack a big one on Bush. Heck, at first I thought it was a hoax news story so thick ands focused was the rhetoric.

I have done more research. Here are some more links:

The text of the actual report

Fortune magazine article about this report

Indeed rapid and extreme climate change is a possibility, but doomsday is not an absolute certainty like the orginal Gaurdian article makes it out to be.

[ryaldin]

The verbiage tends to make one blanch a little when reading. In the posted thread, for example, the phrase:

Originally posted by Chewbacca: Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will [my emphasis] erupt across the world.

declares that x, y and z will occur, whereas the document at stopesso.com says:

We have created a climate change scenario that although not the most likely, is plausible...

I absolutely concur that global warming is a major issue, and it needs to be dealt with, but resorting to scare tactics and effectively, 'changing the might's to will's' isn't the best way to do it.

[ 02-24-2004, 08:31 AM: Message edited by: ryaldin ]

[Azred]

Oh, joy. Another report about how a vast majority of the world will be severely threatened by climate changes. I simply must remember to write myself a note to become hysterical in the near future.

Although I do agree that we should continue to research sources of energy that cause less pollution than burning fossil fuels (of course, those who are green usually reject fission and fusion as those sources), I have never seen any scientific evidence that has persuaded me that climate change is a serious, imminent threat. According to statements and conclusions made during the mid 1980s, I should be living much closer to the ocean than I do now.

Azred pats alarmist climatologists on their heads. Maybe someday they will become real scientists.

[Chewbacca]

Totally off-topic....Hey Azred!

I Haven't seen you around for while! I Hope your doing well! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Oblivion437]

This crap just isn't acceptable anymore. What these people don't realize about their 'suppressed' report is that it was leaked like all Pentagon leaks: People sell them to newspapers!

[Timber Loftis]

Well, we all agree that the proof is still being developed, but there MAY be a concern.

Isn't the pentagon's job to consider possible long-term threats? I mean, nuclear war with Russia was not IMMINENT during the 80's, yet we spent a lot of money combating the possibility. As with any security/safety issue, precaution must be exercised. Until it is known NOT to be a threat, we should curtail the things that we think COULD contribute to climate change.

[Azred]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: Totally off-topic....Hey Azred!

Well...no one's perfect. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]

[John D Harris]

The Pentagon prepares for and makes reports preparing for all kinds of things, some happen most don't. Having said that should we develope more efficeint(sp?) less poluting energy soruces, YES. Less poluting because it's stupid to "poop" in your in your kitchen, more efficeint because that's better, and allows you to do more with less effort.