Climate Change Is a Military Problem for the US
The US military has its hands full at the moment with a vicious war in Ukraine and US-China tensions over issues from human rights to sovereignty over the South China Sea. But it cannot delay taking action to address climate change, the most persistent strategic threat we face.
As a young naval officer, I took for granted the many beautiful home ports at which our fleet was berthed. Now, rising sea levels are threatening many of them. Both Norfolk, Virginia – the largest naval base in the world – and Mayport, Florida, stand to see significant loss of waterfront berths by mid-century. Climate change puts our strategic base network at risk.
It also raises demands on scarce naval resources, as it brings more unpredictable, highly destructive storms. As a naval commander, I’ve participated in many humanitarian relief efforts in response to natural disasters, including massive hurricanes in the US Southeast and Caribbean, wildfires in the American West, tsunamis in the Pacific and storms in Central America. These disasters are only becoming more frequent.
At the same time, climate change poses a new national security challenge by expanding ocean geography. The Arctic (or the High North as our Canadian friends more eloquently call it) has been largely frozen over most of the year throughout recorded history. Now, the ice is breaking up, shipping lanes are opening for much of the year, and rich hydrocarbon deposits are becoming accessible. Thus, the Artic is becoming a broader venue for great-power competition between Russia and NATO countries, including the US, Canada, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, and soon perhaps Sweden and Finland.
Climate change also heightens tensions between the developed world and developing countries in
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