Posts Tagged ‘national security’

An Interesting Concept

This exchange between Republican Senator James Inhofe and Deborah Solomon in the Sunday NYT magazine is priceless. Inhofe: Can you tell me one reason to close Gitmo? NYT: Because it’s on foreign soil, where prisoners don’t have the same legal rights as prisoners tried here, and we want to apply the same laws to everybody….Continue Reading…

Morano's Recurring Military Nightmare

Looks like retired military brass are fanning out to make the case for a national security angle to climate change. That’s going to add a whole new interesting dimension to the political debate. It also presents a sustained narrative that Marc Morano will have trouble countering at Climate Depot. Many of his headlines and links…Continue Reading…

Foreign Policy's Crystal Ball

The Sept/Oct issue of Foreign Policy magazine is a must-read for anyone interested in energy and climate change-related issues. I’m just starting to work through it. David Rothkopf’s “Is a Green World a Safer World?” should prompt some interesting reax from the env security think tanks.

Tortured Climate Logic at The Times

Did anyone else shake their head in confusion while reading yesterday’s uneven NYT editorial on climate change politics and policy? It starts off remarking that that Congress has no “plausible strategy for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions” and then duly notes that the Waxman-Markey bill is not as strong as needed, but is a start….Continue Reading…

Unleashing the Furies

The nascent field of environmental security better be ready for prime time, because this front-page NYT story on Sunday is sure to inject the national security/climate change nexus into the public debate. It’ll be interesting to see how the leading environmental security advocates respond to John Broder’s NYT article. (Keep an eye here and here.)…Continue Reading…

Morano & the Military

[UPDATE: Morano insists I got this wrong. See below.] Not a peep from Climate Depot about this hearing and the climate climate change concerns expressed by former Senator John Warner and military brass. When it comes to mocking so-called climate alarmism, Morano rarely misses an opportunity. Yet this is twice in the past week. I…Continue Reading…

Strategic Climate Blunder

Summarizing the theme of a recent hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kate Sheppard at Grist writes: More senators and citizens might support a climate bill if it emphasized the national security challenges presented by climate change, former Virginia Sen. John Warner (R) argued on Tuesday. I’ve made similar points here and here. I’ll…Continue Reading…

If Lou Dobbs Latched onto Climate Change

Imagine the histrionics when Lou Dobbs figures out the climate change angle to one of his pet causes. In the meantime, with respect to yesterday’s big report, this is a reasonable take on domestic security issues, particularly those related to the border: As much as the United States will have its hands full dealing with…Continue Reading…

The Pentagon's Potential Game Changer

Green the Pentagon’s mighty military apparatus and everyone else will follow. At least that’s the WSJ’s Keith Johnson’s useful interpretation of the latest CNA report, entitled, “Powering America’s Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security.” Johnson’s historical perspective is instructive and makes me think that the clarion call issued on Monday by a high-voltage…Continue Reading…

Military Leaders Warn of Climate Change-Again

UPDATE: [Here are some stories on the CNA report from BusinessWeek,  DefenseNews, and ClimateWire. Additionally, the DOD Energy Blog weighs in, and so does The New Security Beat.] Nice timing by CNA, issuing this new report today by its Military Advisory Board, entitled, “Powering America’s Defense: Energy and Risks to National Security.” Climate change is…Continue Reading…