Global Warming a Security Risk

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

In the post I made on 15 April 2007, The Power of Green "

http://health./message/47277

Thomas L. Friedman wrote .. bottom of the top third of the post ..

 

> Pay attention: When the U.S. Army desegregated, the country really

> desegregated; when the Army goes green, the country could really go

> green.

 

Below is in line with that .. and interesting it is .. I think.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

 

Global Warming a Security Risk

 

Retired Military Leaders Issue Report: Global Warming a Security Risk

 

By SETH BORENSTEIN

AP

 

16 April 2007

 

WASHINGTON (April 16) - Global warming poses a " serious threat to

America's national security " with terrorism worsening and the U.S.

will likely be dragged into fights over water and other shortages, top

retired military leaders warn in a new report.

 

Gen. Anthony " Tony " Zinni, President Bush's former Middle East envoy,

said in the report that a connection could be made between " climate

change and instability, or climate change and terrorism. "

 

Joining calls already made by scientists and environmental activists,

the retired U.S. military leaders, including the former Army chief of

staff and President Bush's former chief Middle East peace negotiator,

called on the U.S. government to make major cuts in emissions of gases

that cause global warming.

 

The report warned that in the next 30 to 40 years there will be wars

over water, increased hunger instability from worsening disease and

rising sea levels and global warming-induced refugees. " The chaos that

results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth

of terrorism, " the 35-page report predicted.

 

" Climate change exacerbates already unstable situations, " former U.S.

Army chief of staff Gordon Sullivan told Associated Press Radio.

" Everybody needs to start paying attention to what's going on. I

don't think this is a particularly hard sell in the Pentagon. We're

paying attention to what those security implications are. "

 

Gen. Anthony " Tony " Zinni, Bush's former Middle East envoy, said in

the report: " It's not hard to make the connection between climate

change and instability, or climate change and terrorism. "

 

The report was issued by the Alexandria, VA-based, national security

think-tank, " The CNA Corporation " and was written by six retired

admirals and five retired generals. They warned of a future of

rampant disease, water shortages and flooding that will make already

dicey areas -- such as the Middle East, Asia and Africa -- even worse.

 

" Weakened and failing governments, with an already thin margin for

survival, foster the conditions for internal conflicts, extremism and

movement toward increased authoritarianism and radical ideologies, "

the report said. " The U.S. will be drawn more frequently into these

situations. "

 

In a veiled reference to Bush's refusal to join an international

treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the report said the U.S.

government " must become a more constructive partner " with other

nations to fight global warming and cope with its consequences.

 

The Bush administration has declined mandatory emission cuts in favor

of voluntary methods. Other nations have committed to required

reductions that kick in within a few years.

 

" We will pay for this one way or another, " wrote Zinni, former

commander of U.S. Central Command. " We will pay to reduce greenhouse

gas emissions today, and we'll have to take an economic hit of some

kind. Or we will pay the price later in military terms. And that

will involve human lives. There will be a human toll. "

 

Top climate scientists said the report makes sense and increased

national security risk is a legitimate global warming side-effect.

 

The report is " pretty impressive, " but may be too alarmist because it

may take longer than 30 years for some of these things to happen, said

Stanford scientist Terry Root, a co-author of this month's

international scientific report on the effects of global warming on

life on Earth.

 

But the instability will happen sometime, Root agreed.

 

" We're going to have a war over water, " Root said. " There's just not

going to be enough water around for us to need to live with and to

provide for the natural environment. "

 

University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver said the

military officers were smart to highlight the issue of refugees who

flee unstable areas because of global warming.

 

" There will be tens of millions of people migrating, where are we

going to put them? " Weaver said.

 

Weaver said that over the past years, scientists, who by nature are

cautious, have been attacked by conservative activists when warning

about climate change. This shows that it's not a liberal-conservative

issue, Weaver said.

 

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.