ET Help: Global Warming:Pentagon Report

[mouseonmoon]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1153530,00.html

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

'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...

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. ...

The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists.

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.

As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.

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.

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(bottom line?)

'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added.

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scary stuff=Global warming=one big volcano can push us over the edge...

 

[Novitas]

[In the public policy sphere, global climate change comes down to one question:

Does it make more sense to deploy scarce resources to abate the supposed causes of global climate change or does it make more sense to deploy those resources to deal with consequences of global climate change if and when it occurs?

In a nutshell, that's the whole public policy issue.

Presently, environmental science is not developed to the point where a serious answer to the above question can be attempted. None of the proposed remedies would make any but a small difference in things even if rigorously adopted.

I wouldn't get too excited over the Pentagon report. It does not represent an official Pentagon stand. Many such reports are written covering all manner of possibilities and expressing all kinds of scenarios. Back during the cold war there was a concern and an effort within the Pentagon and intelligence services to close the "psychic gap" with the Soviets. The notion that the Soviets were using psychics to spy on the U.S. had gotten loose and that had some officials worried. That the concern was genuine and the effort to close this "gap" was sincere did not then mean that the concern was justified or the effort was constructive.

I believe that people today who are genuinely concerned about human induced global climate change would do better to promote the advancement of environmental science so that it can actually be used as a public policy tool. That would certainly be more constructive than to chastise an administration for not sufficiently using this issue for political theatre - which given the current stage of development of environmental science - is all that any administration could really do.

 

[R0man]

This article highlights the alarming and potentially catastrophic consequences of global warming, as outlined in a secret report by the Pentagon. The fact that the US government has suppressed this information and continues to deny the existence of climate change is concerning and raises questions about their priorities. It is clear that this issue should be treated as a national security concern, given its potential impact on global stability and the lives of millions of people. It is also alarming to think that the current administration may be ignoring this evidence in order to appease the interests of a few large energy and oil companies. The effects of global warming are real and urgent action needs to be taken to address this issue before it's too late.