Global Warming and National Security
cmooney | March 18, 2009My latest Science Progress column contemplates this question, in the wake of a spot of news that doesn't seem to have caused any uproar (yet)--namely, that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is apparently holding an event to discuss the prospect of geoengineering the climate.
As I write in the column:
This is newsworthy for at least two reasons: The U.S. government has, thus far, kept the subject of geoengineering at a relative arm's-length; and one reason for that shyness is the extremely checkered past history of U.S. military ventures in weather modification, including…
sheril | January 18, 2009From the New York Times:
Sea level rise fueled by global warming threatens the barrier islands and coastal wetlands of the Middle Atlantic States, a federal report warned on Friday.
The report, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Geological Survey and other agencies, is one of a series examining the potential effects of a rising sea level on the nation's coasts.
The rise in sea level is accelerating, the report said, because warmer water occupies more space and because of runoff from melting inland glaciers and ice sheets. The Middle Atlantic States are…
cmooney | December 18, 2008I just posted my weekly DeSmogBlog item: It's about the disconnect right now between the infrastructure and stimulus agenda on the one hand, and the global warming and energy agenda on the other. These all need to be synthesized, for the simple reason that you can't rebuild infrastructure unless you're adapting it to climate change.
At the same time, focusing on the impacts of climate change to the transportation sector, to infrastructure more generally, and to separate regions of the country, will help make the issue relevant to citizens. Or as Nick Sundt, communications director for…
sheril | April 9, 2008
Folks up in DC have the chance to catch my colleague Dr. Raphael Sagarin tomorrow at AAAS. He's in town to talk about his new book 'Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World':
'From observations of nature and studies in evolutionary biology, Dr. Sagarin has drawn some intriguing conclusions that he suggests may have applications to security in human society. Biological organisms have been developing and adapting novel solutions to myriad threats for their own security for over 3.5 billion years. Across that immense span, literally millions of natural features have…
cmooney | May 25, 2007What are the appropriate roles of the defense and intelligence establishments in understanding and responding to global warming? In a recent op-ed, my colleague Mark Drapeau and I reviewed a study by the CNA Corp. that highlighted the natural security threats posed by unchecked climate change. The CNA report observed (rightly, in our view) that the predicted impacts of climate change - among them, critical shortages of food and water in some regions - could act as "threat multipliers" in some of the least developed, but strategically important parts of the world. In light of this, we argued…
cmooney | May 24, 2007Dr. Montgomery McFate, a noted anthropologist and Pentagon consultant currently based at the U.S. Institute for Peace, has pointed out an historical military role of her academic field in understanding the local populace during the Colonial period. Despite this intermingled history of anthropology and the military, however, modern-day defense policymakers and academic researchers rarely play well together in the proverbial sandbox. In general, a Cold War-era preoccupation with technological superiority, combined with the negative aftereffects of poor cultural understanding of opposing forces…