Military and Religious Leaders Speak
What the experts are saying:
“Other powerful trends are likely to add complexity to the security environment. Rising demand for resources, rapid urbanization of littoral regions, the effects of climate change, the emergence of new strains of disease, and profound cultural and demographic tensions in several regions are just some of the trends whose complex interplay may spark or exacerbate future conflicts. America’s interests are inextricably linked to the integrity and resilience of the international system.” – Executive Summary, Quadrennial Defense Review
“We continue to assess that global climate change will have wide-ranging implications for US national security interests over the next 20 years because it will aggravate existing world problems—such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions—that threaten state stability.” – Director of National Intelligence, Annual Threat Assessment
“Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease, and may spur or exacerbate mass migration.” – 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review
“Addressing the consequences of changes in the Earth’s climate is not simply about saving polar bears or preserving the beauty of mountain glaciers, important as those are. Climate change is a threat to our national security . . . New climate conditions will drive human beings to move in ever larger numbers, seeking food, water, shelter and work. No region will be immune. Climate refugees will increasingly cross our own borders. The stress of changes in the environment will further weaken marginal states. Failing states will incubate extremism.” – Center for Homeland Defense and Security
“While the developed world will be far better equipped to deal with the effects of climate change, some of the poorest regions may be affected most. This gap can potentially provide an avenue for extremist ideologies and create the conditions for terrorism.” – 2007 CNA Report pg 13
“Transit migration through the Maghreb—Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania—to other locations contributes to the destabilization of Northern African societies. This instability in turn provides an operating environment for the rapidly growing regional branch of Al Qaeda, which operates in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, and Niger.” – Quadrennial Defense Review Should Spark Interagency Climate Conversation, February 11, 2010
“The scarcity of and potential competition for resources like water, food and space, compounded by an influx of refugees if coastal lands are lost, does not only create a humanitarian crisis but creates conditions of hopelessness that could lead to failed states and make populations vulnerable to radicalization.” - Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
“It is important to understand that most of the effects from long-term climate changes will occur “on the margins” of economic, social, and political activity . . . These incremental pressures may not, in themselves, drive resilient economies and states into failure, but they are another stress that will challenge marginal states . . . In general, the goal of US foreign policy has been to seek stability around the world.9 Instability is believed to increase the likelihood that disruptive or irregular security challenges will emerge—for example, unstable states are more likely to provide safe havens for terrorists [62–63].” - 2010 CNA Report pg 31-32
“The effects of climate change in North Africa are likely to exacerbate existing threats to the region’s water and food resources, economies, urban infrastructure, and sociopolitical systems. Cities probably will face deteriorating living conditions, high unemployment, and frequent civil unrest. Climatic stress coupled with socioeconomic crises and ineffective state responses could generate localized social or governmental collapses and humanitarian crises.” - Quadrennial Defense Review Should Spark Interagency Climate Conversation, February 11, 2010
“The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), carries out foreign assistance programs that support key U.S. foreign policy interests and have a positive public diplomacy impact for many people in the developing world. USAID’s humanitarian aid programs and its activities in the areas of economic growth, agriculture, trade, health, democracy, and conflict prevention help reduce the risk of countries becoming breeding grounds for terrorism. In Afghanistan, USAID is helping to build a safe, stable society that meets the needs of its people and eliminates an environment in which terrorist groups have flourished. USAID has been on the front lines of support to tsunami-affected countries, garnering goodwill toward the United States among people in the hardest-hit areas. Our rapid humanitarian assistance and generous reconstruction pledge in response to the devastating South Asian earthquake helped Pakistan in its hour of need, tangibly changing hearts and minds about the U.S. role in this predominately Muslim country.” - State Department
“Threats to nations and our world economies do not always originate with our enemies. Global climate change is one of the greatest threats to our national security both because it literally threatens the very planet we inhabit and because the droughts, famine, and floods it creates threaten to destabilize regions around the world.”
- Rear Admiral Stuart Franklin Platt, USN Ret, a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, with over 20 medals for military sea and combat service
“We embrace the Church’s call to care for the poor. The government also shares in this responsibility. Basic decency requires that we assist those who lack the bare essentials for survival. Prudence dictates that we help the poor reach their full potential as productive, tax-paying citizens. Addressing extreme poverty abroad demonstrates the nation’s values and builds a more stable, prosperous and secure world for everyone.” – National Association of Evangelicals
“The brutal consumption of creation begins where God is not… I think, therefore, that true and effective initiatives to prevent the waste and destruction of creation can [start] only where creation is considered as beginning with God…Particular attention must be paid to the fact that the poorest countries are likely to pay the heaviest price for ecological deterioration . . . This in turn calls for a responsible relationship not only with creation but also with our neighbors, near and far, in space and time, and with the Creator” - Pope Benedict XVI
“The real inconvenient truth is that those who are poor and vulnerable contribute the least to climate change and are likely to suffer the most and have the fewest resources to respond.”
- John Carr, Director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
“Addressing climate change is a justice issue. The effects of climate change are already being felt the most by those who can least affordto deal with its effects. And as the climate continues to change, the impact will be more keenly felt both by low-income communities in the U.S. and least developed and developing nations abroad. Water scarcity, drought, crop failure, increased disease, and flooding are just a few of the impacts. The interconnectedness of these two issues cannot be missed.” – National Council of Churches
“We must care about environmental and climate issues because we are called to love our neighbors, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us and to protect and care for the “least of these” (Mt. 22:34-40; Mt. 7:12; Mt. 25:31-46). The consequences of these problems will most likely hit the poor the hardest, in part because those areas likely to be significantly affected are in the world’s poorest regions. Poor nations and individuals have fewer resources available to cope with major challenges and threats. Therefore, “we should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy … [and] the helpless” (BFM 2000) through proper stewardship.” – Southern Baptist Climate Initiative
