The document, released on Monday, is an update to the agency’s first climate roadmap released in 2012. But rather than being a slight tweak, it provides a major overhaul of how the military views the challenges that climate change poses in the near- and long-term to its training, operations, supply chains and infrastructure around the world. “This is the strongest language coming out of the Department of Defense we’ve seen. That represents an evolution of how they have been looking at this issue,” said Francesco Femia, co-director of the Center for Climate and Security, a nonpartisan think tank.
Planning for those added risks is where Femia said the updated roadmap really breaks new ground and shows that the report likely represents concerns that are coming from the military base-level up to the White House and not just the other way around. “The plan represents a broadening of the Department of Defense risk analysis. Climate change is not just a threat to military installations or supply lines, it’s a broader strategic security risk that can impact fundamental U.S. interests in the world,” Femia told Climate Central. “This is getting moved out of the environmental box and moving to a higher order realm of security risks.”
That means the Pentagon will have to consider not just how much seas and temperatures will rise or rainfall patterns will shift. It will also have to consider the cascading effects those changes will have on health, landscapes and society itself. Some research already points to how mosquito-borne diseases could become more prevalent, how climate change could increase the odds of conflict and how receding Arctic sea ice could open up a resource rush.
Read More of Pentagon: Climate Change Poses ‘Immediate Risks’
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