Chief of U.S. Pacific forces calls climate change biggest worry – ‘You could have millions of people displaced, and security will start to crumble pretty quickly’
By Bryan Bender
9 March 2013 CAMBRIDGE (Boston Globe) – America’s top military officer in charge of monitoring hostile actions by North Korea, escalating tensions between China and Japan, and a spike in computer attacks traced to China provides an unexpected answer when asked what is the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region: climate change. Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, in an interview at a Cambridge hotel Friday after he met with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities, said significant upheaval related to the warming planet “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen … that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’ “People are surprised sometimes,” he added, describing the reaction to his assessment. “You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.” Locklear said his Hawaii-based headquarters — which is assigned more than 400,00 military and civilian personnel and is responsible for operations from California to India, is working with Asian nations to stockpile supplies in strategic locations and planning a major exercise for May with nearly two dozen countries to practice the “what-ifs.” Locklear’s two-day visit to New England, which included meetings with students at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., coincides with the Obama’ administration’s recent “pivot” to Asia — the recalibration of national security strategy after more than decade of war in the Middle East to reemphasize a region with rising military and economic powers such as China and India and where most US trade links are. In closed-door discussions Thursday and Friday, Locklear met with security and foreign policy specialists, including the Harvard Kennedy School’s Graham Allison, who directs the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Asia specialist Joseph Nye Jr. […] “The ice is melting and sea is getting higher,” Locklear said, noting that 80 percent of the world’s population lives within 200 miles of the coast. “I’m into the consequence management side of it. I’m not a scientist, but the island of Tarawa in Kiribati, they’re contemplating moving their entire population to another country because [it] is not going to exist anymore.” The US military, he said, is beginning to reach out to other armed forces in the region about the issue. “We have interjected into our multilateral dialogue – even with China and India – the imperative to kind of get military capabilities aligned [for] when the effects of climate change start to impact these massive populations,” he said. “If it goes bad, you could have hundreds of thousands or millions of people displaced and then security will start to crumble pretty quickly.’’ [more]
Chief of US Pacific forces calls climate biggest worry
re "..the imperative to kind of get military capabilities aligned [for] when the effects of climate change start to impact these massive populations”
Um.. what does that mean?
Does it mean the ability to repulse displaced populations?
The ability to police mega refuge camps?
Does anyone else think there must be better ways to mitigate or prepare for climate change than to feed more billions to the military?