With constant media coverage of the
Ebola virus, you may have missed news reports that the Pentagon
released its Climate Change Report, assessing international threats
to our security when coastlines, water supplies, floodplains are
impacted by sudden climate events.
It's hard to imagine this august
Republican institution having the fortitude to admit that climate
change is a very real threat to American security – especially
before an election.
But, climate change is real. Everyone
in Louisiana knows this first hand. We lived through terrible storms
that destroyed large segments of New Orleans. Our coastal lands are
disappearing at an unbelievable rate. Our children carefully assess
storm threats to determine whether they should be happy for a weather
holiday, or fearful that they might lose their roof or their house.
Again.
The Pentagon does not prescribe actions
we can take to prevent climate change in its report. It boldly
claims the effects of climate change are real, and they are here to
stay.
The military is not only worried about
the impact of climate change on its overseas bases. It is worried
that countries can be overrun with terrorists when climate change
destabilizes foreign governments.
This may be hard for Americans to
imagine, since our media focused on the hundreds of thousands of
humanitarian deeds committed by our citizens who responded to the
Hurricane Katrina disaster with compassion and the belief that we
owed survivors every effort to restore their communities to their
former glory.
But, most of the effects of climate
change do not happen with sudden events like Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita. Most of the effects are gradual: water sources dry up. Land is
swallowed up by the oceans.
Louisiana's coastal land is
disappearing at a frightening rate, but, we don't seem to notice it,
because it's not happening within a 24 hour news cycle.
Our nation still believes in safety
nets and emergency humanitarian response. When communities lose
their water, we ship in water and ice. When towns are flooded, we
ship in shelter, water, ice, food, and thousands of workers to help
get the town back to some semblance of normalcy.
In its report, our Department of
Defense claims that most of the 63 or more nations where our military
has bases will be completely destabilized and vulnerable to
terrorism. Why? Because these countries do not have that same
capacity to rush in and save their people from climate change
disasters as we do in this country.
When I served at Fort Polk as the first
female chaplain in the Second Armed Cavalry Regiment, I learned a lot
from the men and women who ran water purification and other basic
operations necessary for humans to live in areas where water is
contaminated.
There were a couple of huge disasters
along the Mississippi River that put our country on notice about the
reality of climate change. Our water purifiers chomped at the bit
after every disaster, hoping they would be sent up to Minnesota and
other northern states to help restore clean water to the region.
Thank goodness, we still believe in
the Common Wealth as a nation. Thank goodness, we still believe in
working for the Common Good. Because whether or not this nation
embraces the Pentagon's Report on Climate Change, disasters will
continue to happen in our nation and abroad.
As long as we continue to believe that
it is our duty to work to save our people from the impacts of climate
change disasters, we won't have to worry about Terrorists taking over
our communities.
But, how do we teach the leaders of the
63-plus nations where we have military bases that their first duty as
a government is to protect their people, their resources from the
very real damage to their nations inflicted by climate change?
How do we pull together as a nation and
as a world community, and rise above the foolish politics of
climate-change denial, and work proactively to prevent the
devastation that comes with disappearing coastal land, contaminated
water, flooded towns and cities, and the diseases that happen when
our safe water supplies are contaminated?
I would love to hear our politicians
and our elected officials address these questions with common sense
answers that reflect our highest values as Americans. We deserve
nothing less.
http://www.acq.osd.mil/ie/download/CCARprint.pdf
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