Climate change has global consequences including greater instability and more extreme storms that will impact the readiness of United States military forces, requiring them to consider the effects of changing conditions in their plans and operations, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.
Civil wars, humanitarian missions, melting sea ice, and coastal flooding can be indirectly or directly tied to climate change, threatening America’s national, homeland and economic security, Obama said during his commencement address in New London, Conn., to new Coast Guard Academy graduates.
“Around the world, climate change increases the risk of instability and conflict,” the president said. “Rising seas are already swallowing low-lying lands from Bangladesh to Pacific islands, forcing people from their homes.” He added that “Globally, we could see a rise in climate change refugees. And I guarantee you the Coast Guard will have to respond.”
Rising sea levels also threaten the U.S. coastline, which challenges the readiness of the armed forces, Obama said, pointing out that military installations and training areas in some areas are facing related risks and in some cases are already dealing with higher tides. This means infrastructure will need to be “smarter” and “more resilient,” he said.
Obama also said that ice melting in the Arctic Ocean means more shipping, exploration and competition for natural resources, which in turn means “we have a great interest in making sure that the region is peaceful, that its indigenous people and environment are protected, and that its resources are managed responsibly in partnership with other nations.”
The Coast Guard knows the Arctic region better than most and the service’s role there “will only grow” as “the Arctic opens,” Obama said. “I believe our interests in the Arctic demand that we continue to invest in an enduring Coast Guard icebreaking capacity.”
The Coast Guard has one working heavy icebreaker and is exploring options for reactivating another that is currently inactive. The cost of a new icebreaker has been estimated at about $1 billion–a steep bill that could overwhelm other recapitalization efforts.
Obama linked “drought and crop failures and high food prices” to unrest in Syria, which eventually devolved into civil war. He also said that “climate change will mean more extreme storms,” and mentioned that Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, which resulted in more than 6,000 deaths, the displacement of even more people, and billions of dollars in damage “gave us a possible glimpse of things to come.”
The international relief effort includes the U.S. military and Coast Guard and so “Our forces will have to be ready.”
Obama’s speech drew a rebuke from House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who stated that the president “sounds alarm bells about climate change and in the meantime short-changes those responsible for tackling real threats to our national security.” In a statement, McCaul said that the Obama administration’s proposed FY ’16 budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would provide more money to fight “global warming than to counter violent extremism.”
“The White House shouldn’t busy DHS with climate politics when terrorism is going viral,” McCaul stated.