Global warming--a national security threat?(Brief article)

A group of distinguished retired Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps brass writing for the Center for Naval Analysis (CNA) has concluded that global warming represents a threat to the future security of the United States. In a report entitled National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, the admirals and generals claim: "Climate change can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world, and it presents significant national security challenges for the United States."

Echoing the recently released report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that global warming will disproportionately affect poor nations, the CNA report argues, "Projected climate change will seriously exacerbate already marginal living standards in many Asian, African, and Middle Eastern nations, causing widespread political instability and the likelihood of failed states."

The only way to head off this looming catastrophe, according to the report, is more ...