1/18/19
Flooding, drought and wildfires driven by climate change pose threats to two-thirds of the U.S. military's installations, the Defense Department said in a new report required by Congress. The authors of the report, which the Pentagon delivered to Congress on Thursday, note that it probably underestimates the full extent of risk to military facilities because it only looks at likely impacts over the next two decades. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said the world needs to become carbon neutral by 2050 to prevent global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius, which would lock in many of the most catastrophic effects of climate change. “It is relevant to point out that ‘future’ in this analysis means only 20 years in the future,” the report said. “Projected changes will likely be more pronounced at the mid-century mark; vulnerability analyses to mid- and late-century would likely reveal an uptick in vulnerabilities (if adaptation strategies are not implemented.)” President Donald Trump has regularly dismissed climate science, including reports like the the National Climate Assessment published in November by federal scientists that showed climate change was hitting all regions of the United States.
The Pentagon report focused on 79 installations across the armed services. It said 53 installations currently experience recurrent flooding, 43 face drought, 36 are exposed to wildfires, six are undergoing desertification and one is dealing with thawing permafrost. More installations will feel those climate stressors in the future, with 60 sites projected to see recurrent flooding, 48 confronted hurt by drought and 43 threatened at risk of wildfires. The report builds on a number of other Pentagon reports that have called climate change a “threat multiplier” that can alter DOD priorities, such as mass migration and humanitarian aid missions fueled by extreme weather events. The fingerprints of climate change can disrupt everyday military operations, the report said. Installations such as Norfolk Naval Base face persistent vulnerabilities like sea-level rise. The Pentagon said it needs "to better understand rates of coastal erosion, natural and built flood protection infrastructure, and inland and littoral flood planning and mitigation." Climate change has contributed to “country instability issues,” where rainy season flooding and desertification in Africa as well as flooding in the Pacific region have stressed military missions, it said.
