Climate Change About More Than Hugging Trees

WASHINGTON (Nov. 12) -- The United States is in "a defensive crouch" on climate change that threatens its national security and must go on the offense by signing an agreement to combat global warming at an international conference in Copenhagen next month, reporters were told here.

"Climate change would act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions in the world," retired Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn said. "Climate change, energy and national security are inextricably linked."

McGinn, a former deputy chief of naval operations, made his pitch sitting beside Carter Roberts, president of the World Wildlife Fund, an advocacy group whose logo is a cuddly panda bear. But the balding military man and the balding animal lover insisted they are no odd couple.

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"I love polar bears, my kids love polar bears. But what do people love even more than polar bears?" Roberts asked.

"Jobs," he said, answering his own question.

"We need to make that connection more clear because we should not just be concerned about creatures far, far away," said Roberts, who two days ago was in northern Canada surrounded by polar bears whose habitat is threatened by the melting Arctic ice cap. "We should be worried about the consequences if the world both ecologically, economically and politically becomes less stable."

Roberts and McGinn spoke ahead of next month's United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen. They urged President Barack Obama to attend the international gathering with or without legislation to cap greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming. And they hope that by stressing the impact not only on animal habitats but on human ones as well, they can prod defense-minded Republican lawmakers unmoved by tree-hugging green groups to sign on.

"There isn't a silver bullet, but there are silver buckshot," McGinn said of the need to attack the problem economically, diplomatically and politically so the nation would not have to someday respond militarily.

Military thinkers are relatively recent converts to the climate change debate. A 2007 report by CNA, a Washington research group, outlined the threats to national security by rising sea levels, floods, drought, famine and a whole raft of other natural plagues that could unhinge politically unstable regions. McGinn is a member of CNA's military advisory board.

Take the Himalayan glacier, McGinn said. Often called the world's highest water tower, it supplies water to three nuclear powers -- China, India and Pakistan -- and it's melting. That retreat will cause floods in rainy season and droughts at other times, washing away homes and infrastructure and interrupting agriculture, which could lead to famine.

"All the elements for confrontation are there today," with religious, ethnic, political and economic fault lines, McGinn said. "It's going to be worse as the effects of climate change manifest themselves."

The threats are closer to home as well. Stronger hurricanes in Central America and the Caribbean, along with deforestation in South America, threaten America's southern border, McGinn said.

"You could foresee in several decades people coming north simply for the essentials of life, the basic needs, not just for a better economic life," he said. "These effects are real. They're not just on some foreign shore."

Yet perhaps the strongest argument for supporting climate change legislation, McGinn said, is America's dependence on foreign oil.

"If I see a yellow ribbon magnet or decal on a car, that's a wonderful spirit. That's the talk of supporting our troops. But if I see it on a big gas-guzzling truck or SUV as a one-person commuter sitting in traffic," he said, "that's not a walk. What people have to understand is that our choices as consumers make a difference to our national security."

He then quoted former CIA director James Woolsey: "If you want to see a key individual who is helping to fund the efforts of al-Qaida, next time you get out to pump gas in your car, just turn the mirror a little bit so you can take a look at yourself and realize that some of that money that goes overseas goes to regimes that aren't necessarily as friendly to our values as we would like them to be, and some of that money finds its way into the hands of extremists."