The House Republican budget released this week seeks to undermine and dismantle several helpful programs and laws. One of the budget proposals claims that the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) research on climate change is wasteful, reported The Washington Post.
Republicans claim they desire to eliminate government waste. However, that really means targeting programs that they are at ideological odds with.
According to the House GOP budget, “The Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, two of the most important agencies in our national security apparatus, currently spend part of their budget studying climate change.”
Last October, the DoD released a report that illustrated how climate change poses a dangerous threat to American national security. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel even signed off on the report which outlines the steps needed to prepare for the worst.
“The loss of glaciers will strain water supplies in several areas of our atmosphere,” said Hagel. “Destruction and devastation from hurricanes can sow the seeds for instability. Droughts and crop failures can leave millions of people without any lifeline and trigger waves of mass migration.”
According to the report, the DoD must “identify and assess the threat, integrate the appropriate responses and work with inside and outside stakeholders on climate change.” Last May, the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Corporate Military Advisory Board released a report stating that climate change is an imminent threat.
The CNA report asserted that droughts that would be caused by climate change will cause violence to erupt in already-unstable regions where people fight over basic resources.
“The [2012] insurrection in Mali where Tuareg went north — drought caused that,” said retired Brigadier General Stephen Cheney. “It dried up their crops, they had to move, and they had to make a living. They went to northern Mali, and that started the insurrection there. We know for a fact, obviously, that climate change contributed to that crought. That’s just one example of instability that was caused by climate change.”
Despite several reports from top military and defense officials, the Republicans remain stubborn about climate change. Some have crazed religious theories about it, and others, as President Obama told VICE News, are just shills for the fossil fuel industry.
