President Biden instructed two dozen federal agencies back in January to develop action plans for climate change, and in mid-October these plans were presented to the White House.
The realities of a hotter and more unfriendly planet must be factored in at all levels of military strategy – from willingness to act in extreme climatic situations to tactics of protecting their own water resources and methods of treating heatstrokes, says the Pentagon’s plan, whose planes, aircraft carriers, convoys, bases and administrative buildings collectively burn more fuel than most countries in the world. This makes the US military the world’s largest contributor to climate degradation.
But the Pentagon’s plan is not focusing on reducing its own contribution to air pollution by greenhouse gases, but on adapting to climate change. “These significant steps must be taken in order to be able to protect our country under all circumstances,” – said in a cover letter from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
For many years, military commanders viewed climate change as a threat to the country’s national security, given the potential conflicts over access to water and other scarce resources and the increased risk of damage to military bases and supply chains.
Newspaper headline:
Coming war with heat
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