GOP Wants Military Mugged About Climate Dangers
By James Donahue
It
was a split vote but the Republican dominated House last week passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill
that if allowed to stand, will block the Department of Defense from using the money to consider the implications of climate
change on national security.
The amendment,
introduced by West Virginia Republican David McKinley, would prohibit the military from using defense money to implement the
U.S. Global Change Research Program National Climate Assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth
Assessment Report, the United Nation’s Agenda 21 sustainable development plan, or the May 2013 Technical Update of the
Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis.
In his presentation before Congress, McKinley argued: “With all the unrest around the world, why should
Congress divert funds from the mission of our military and national security to support a political ideology?”
It is no surprise that nearly all of the House Republicans and even
a few Democratic representatives voted to support the amendment, which is designed to help keep the fossil fuel industry out
of military planning. How much money did the oil, coal and gas lobbyists slip into the pockets of key House members to get
such a malicious amendment slipped into that important military spending bill? Did they think nobody would notice?
As the world is now being racked by some of the most extreme weather
patterns in known history, as droughts threaten crops in once productive nations, and as extreme winter storms and extreme
summer heat, melting ice caps and melting glaciers threaten life as we once knew it there should be no question about potential
military concerns.
A recent Pentagon report
noted that the extreme weather events are “threat multipliers” in such matters as poverty, environmental destruction,
social tensions and political instability.
And
even during the years that climate change denier George W. Bush remained in office, a National Intelligence Assessment dared
to conclude that “climate change poses a significant threat to national security.”
The human assault on the world’s environment, the problems of
overpopulation, pollution and crop failures, the rising sea levels brought on by melting ice caps, and the civil unrest caused
by excessive heat, world hunger and disease, are bound to generate civil unrest, war and general chaos.
How dare we shackle our military and prevent the Pentagon from planning
how to deal with issues that are sure to affect us all? Climate change and the environmental breakdown is the most important
issue facing humanity today. We have waited too long to stop what looms just around the corner.
