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Trump’s Defense Secretary Cites Climate Change as National Security Challenge

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Secretary of Defense James Mattis has asserted that climate change is real, and a threat to American interests abroad and the Pentagon’s assets everywhere, a position that appears at odds with the views of the president who appointed him and many in the administration in which he serves.

In unpublished written testimony provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee after his confirmation hearing in January, Mattis said it was incumbent on the U.S. military to consider how changes like open-water routes in the thawing Arctic and drought in global trouble spots can pose challenges for troops and defense planners. He also stressed this is a real-time issue, not some distant what-if.

“Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today,” Mattis said in written answers to questions posed after the public hearing by Democratic members of the committee. “It is appropriate for the Combatant Commands to incorporate drivers of instability that impact the security environment in their areas into their planning.”

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Comments

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  • Me

    Good for him (and all the rest of us).

  • Jerry Sullivan

    I'll be damned..there had to be a first to recognize the situation, and Mattis just stepped up and did the right thing. The reality is simple, but dealing with it and growing thru it will be the difficult parts. We can't just go back 100 years and re-set everything, so we'll have to adapt and improvise while our scientific communities develop alternatives to fossil fuels and ways to mitigate our destructive means of extraction and consumption. We see the effects all around us and endure those that sicken us, and even China is making HUGE investments in solar power in an effort to ween themselves from their coal, the burning of which is literally killing their people. I hope this will be the beginning of an honest effort to resolve these complex and well established problems THAT WE ALL FACE.