With some of the nation’s top spies testifying before Congress today about a 58-page report entitled “The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change Through 2030,” there’s likely to be a major elephant in the room, although not an Indian one (they’re endangered).
A growing chorus of voices in the Bush administration’s own intelligence community is now calling for global climate change to at least be a part of long-term military and intelligence strategic planning, but Bush himself seems determined that part of his legacy will be lifting the nearly 30-year ban on offshore oil drilling on his way out the door.
The latest intelligence report, coupled with a report last year by a panel of retired three- and four-star generals, comes to the rather obvious conclusion that global climate change could destabilize already volatile areas of the world, displacing their populations, prompting food shortages and generally creating a far more fertile environment for terrorism and armed conflict.
So while reducing our dependence on oil from those parts of the world seems like a swell idea — even if it’s up for debate just how much that dependence would be reduced — anything that contributes to global climate change seems a tad unpatriotic these days.In other words, if you’re not against global climate change, you’re for global climate change, right?