{"id":140134,"date":"2017-12-18T22:47:20","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T03:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=140134"},"modified":"2017-12-18T22:47:20","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T03:47:20","slug":"under-trump-climate-change-not-a-national-security-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/18\/under-trump-climate-change-not-a-national-security-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Trump, climate change not a national security threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Donald Trump removed climate change from the list of worldwide threats menacing the United States on Monday, a shift that underscores the long-term ramifications of the \u201cAmerica first\u201d world view he laid out in his new National Security Strategy. (Photo<\/a>: Donald J. Trump\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump removed climate change from the list of worldwide threats menacing the United States on Monday, a shift that underscores the long-term ramifications of the \u201cAmerica first\u201d world view he laid out in his new National Security Strategy.<\/p>\n

The document depicts Russia and China as combative rivals in perpetual competition with the U.S. But it makes no mention of what scientists say are the dangers posed by a warming climate, including more extreme weather events that could spark humanitarian crises, mass migrations, and conflict.<\/p>\n

It’s a significant departure from the Obama administration, which had described climate change as an \u201curgent and growing threat to our national security.\u201d And it demonstrates how Trump, despite struggling to push his own agenda through a Republican-controlled Congress, has been able to unilaterally dismantle one of his predecessor’s signature efforts.<\/p>\n

As far back as 2003, during George W. Bush’s presidency, a report commissioned by the Defence Department said abrupt climate change threatened \u201cdisruption and conflict,\u201d refugee crises, border tensions and more military conflicts.<\/p>\n

Trump’s national security report, required annually by Congress, emphasizes that economic security is national security for the U.S. It makes clear the United States will unilaterally defend its sovereignty, even if that means risking existing agreements with other countries.<\/p>\n

The new document doesn’t eliminate references to the environment entirely. It \u201crecognizes the importance of environmental stewardship\u201d and says that \u201cclimate policies will continue to shape the global energy system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States will remain a global leader in reducing traditional pollution, as well as greenhouse gases, while expanding our economy,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n

But Trump, in a speech about the report, blamed past administrations for putting \u201cAmerican energy under lock and key\u201d and said his approach \u201cembraces a future of American energy dominance and self-sufficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation must take advantage of our wealth in domestic resources and energy efficiency to promote competitiveness across our industries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That thinking represents a reversal, not just from previous Democratic administrations, but from Republican as well, said Geoffrey Dabelko, director of environmental studies at Ohio University.<\/p>\n

\u201cProscribing more fossil fuels rather than seeing that as a fundamental source of vulnerability that undercuts resilience … that is definitely a departure, in some ways turning the argument on its head,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The last national strategy document, prepared by President Barack Obama in 2015, identified climate change as a national security risk alongside threats like the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and catastrophic attacks on the U.S. homeland.<\/p>\n

Climate change, that document warned, was contributing to \u201cincreased natural disasters, refugee flows and conflicts over basic resources like food and water\u201d and was already being felt \u201cfrom the Arctic to the Midwest,\u201d with rising sea levels and storm surges threatening coastal regions, infrastructure and property.<\/p>\n

Jamil N. Jaffer, founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s law school, sees the broader new strategy as a shift \u201cthat reasserts America’s role in the world as a nation willing to assert its power and influence in its own interest, and as a nation ready and willing to engage in competition–and win–in areas ranging from economics to diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Rosina Bierbaum, a University of Michigan environmental policy scientist, said, \u201cNot including climate change in a document about security threats is putting our head in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate change is \u201cabsolutely a security threat,\u201d posing risks to U.S. coastal infrastructure, expanding the ranges of pests and pathogens, and fueling more powerful storms and wildfires, she said. Around the world, the changing climate threatens food and drinking water shortages that will boost mass migration and heighten\u00a0international<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0tension, said Bierbaum, a former associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology during the Clinton administration who helped write the initial congressionally mandated national climate assessment.<\/p>\n

Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University, said, \u201cThere’s a big element of cutting off our nose to spite our face just because the administration doesn’t like the words ‘climate change.\u201d’<\/p>\n

Since taking office, Trump has worked to roll back regulations on planet-warming carbon emissions. He announced his intention to withdraw from what he described as \u201cthe very expensive and unfair\u201d Paris climate agreement signed by nearly 200 nations, approved the Keystone XL pipeline, and worked to scrap Obama-era initiatives meant to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, among a long list of measures.<\/p>\n

Trump has personally expressed skepticism about the reality of climate change, describing it on Twitter as an \u201cexpensive hoax\u201d that was \u201ccreated by and for the Chinese\u201d to hurt U.S. manufacturing.<\/p>\n

However, members of the Trump administration, including Defence Secretary James Mattis, have made clear they believe a changing climate should be taken into account by the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

Trump himself signed a defence spending bill this month that orders the Pentagon to assess the \u201cvulnerabilities to military installations and combatant commander requirements resulting from climate change over the next 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is not just ignoring science and public opinion about the dangers of the climate crisis, he’s ignoring American generals and the Pentagon about what it takes to keep our military and our country safe,\u201d Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

But David Titley, a retired rear admiral and the director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State, said he was pleased to see at least some reference to greenhouse gases and pollution in the document, although he said it was unlikely to have much impact on day-to-day actions by the Department of Defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts on the ground are the earth is continuing to heat up. The sea level continues to rise. So whether or not this administration talks about climate risk, the DoD is going to have to deal with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump removed climate change from the list of worldwide threats menacing the United States on Monday, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":140138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,16],"tags":[1365,39489,39488,14087,406],"class_list":["post-140134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news","tag-climate-change","tag-national-security-strategy","tag-national-security-threat","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-united-states","mauthors-jill-colvin","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}