Climate change is a serious threat. Don’t buy it? Just ask the United States Department of Defense. In a new report published this week, the Pentagon acknowledged in no uncertain terms that the rising temperature of the planet is “reshaping” the world with “more frequent, intense, and unpredictable extreme weather conditions caused by climate change” — though it is largely uninterested in analyzing the Defense Department’s own role in contributing to the crisis.
First, the good: The Department of Defense clearly recognizes the gravity of climate change and has a realistic view of its likely impacts. Climate change “touches most of what this department does, and this threat will continue to have worsening implications for U.S. national security,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin writes at the outset of the report. This shouldn’t be a big deal, but considering the Trump administration actively tried to obscure the science that shows how serious climate change is, all while the president’s own Defense Department warned him to take it seriously, this is a real victory.
