Monday, December 13, 2010

Time to make an Al Gore joke

In the 21st century, the security of nations will depend increasingly on the security of natural resources, or “natural security.”  Countries around the world rely on the availability of potable water, arable land, fish stocks, biodiversity, energy, minerals and other renewable and nonrenewable resources to meet the rising needs and expectations of a growing world population. Yet the availability of these resources is by no means assured.  This report - authored by  Christine Parthemore and Will Rogers - points to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Mexico and Yemen as examples of how natural security challenges are directly linked to internal stability, regional dynamics and U.S. security and foreign policy interests.

It's interesting to me that the American military -- as a group, about as conservative and GOP-oriented a collection of humans as you'll ever find -- is preparing for and thinking about what climate change will mean for America's national security. What do they know that their civilian friends don't?

1 comment:

Monkey RobbL said...

I dunno, Joel, in scanning over that report, it doesn't appear that climate change is seen as near the problem that other resource threats are. It seems to be relegated to the relatively minor role of intensifying the effect of other threats, especially clean water, arable land, and access to oil. It's certainly not treated as a centerpiece issue in the executive summary or the paragraph you cited. What am I missing?