Scientists and Coast Guard swimmers test the integrity a melt pond on sea ice in the
Chukchi Sea before drilling holes through which instruments can be deployed to collect data.
A new
poll from the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College has found that 70 percent of Americans believe there is "solid evidence" of climate change and only 16 percent who say it isn't real. The rest aren't sure. That might be encouraging given the tsunami of money the Koch Brothers, Exxon and other fossil fuel fools have poured into the laps of professional liars to spread the word and congressional marionettes to obstruct any action.
Encouraging except that various surveys for more than 15 years have shown a majority of Americans agree climate change is already upon us. When the first of these National Surveys on Energy and the Environment (NSEE) posed the climate question in the fall of 2008, 72 percent of Americans said there was solid evidence, while 17 percent did not. Seven years and the difference falls within the margin of error.
Likewise, repeating Gallup Polls on climate change have fluctuated significantly from year to year. Asked if they thought global warming was already happening, 48 percent said yes in 1998, and 61 percent said yes in 2008. But in the latest survey, conducted in March this year, the yes response had fallen to 55 percent, and 33 percent said it would never happen or at least not in their lifetimes.
There was a hint of hopeful news in the NSEE survey:
Over the last year the percentage of Republicans that stated there is not evidence of global warming decreased by 15 points from 41% to 26%.
But whatever may or may not be happening among Republican citizens, the loudest voices on climate change in Congress (and in the parade of Republican presidential candidates) still belong to the deniers, a word the Associated Press Stylebook editors don't want us to use anymore, replacing it with doubters instead, apparently having passed over more accurate choices such as charlatans and bullshitters. While their Republican constituents seem, maybe, to be moving toward accepting what the overwhelming number of climate scientists have been warning us about, their stubborn representatives show no signs of budging. More than half are in the bullshitter/charlatan camp.
All five Democratic candidates at Tuesday's debate were asked what they think is our greatest national security threat. Bernie Sanders' clarion statement on the matter got far less media attention than most other subjects raised that night. He said:
“The scientific community is telling us if we do not address the global crisis of climate change, transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to sustainable energy, the planet that we’re going to be leaving our kids and our grandchildren may well not be habitable. That is a major crisis.”
Check below the orange CO
2 trail to see the response to Sanders' choice.
New Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur emailed a slam on Sanders that Deciminyan at the Blue Jersey blog discussed:
Last night’s Democrat Presidential debate blew me away. One of the candidates actually said that the biggest threat to U.S. national security was CLIMATE CHANGE!
Not ISIS. Not a nuclear Iran. Not Putin. Not a President who plays politics with our defense budget. Climate change.
You expect from MacArthur's tone for him to end that email with ZOMG! and WTF!
The night of the debate, Christian Ayatollah Mike Huckabee tweeted: "They believe climate change is a greater threat than Islamic extremism, that a sunburn is worse than a beheading. It's nonsense!"
And then there is that failing presidential candidate from the Bush clan, Jebya, spouting to Foxaganda's Steve Doocy:
I don't think climate change ranks in the top ten list when you consider that we have these asymmetric threats of Islamic terrorism, organized to destroy western civilization. You have nation states like Russia on the run, where we're pulling back, creating big problems for ourselves and our allies. You see the threats on Israel, the threats to Europe across the board. We have serious national security challenges in this world today because of the weakness of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy. And that would be the answer I think that most people would want to hear.
Not only not the No. 1 national security threat, but not even in the top 10.
All this caterwauling ignores what the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review have to say. The QDR is the nation's key public document laying out U.S. military doctrine. Here's a bit from the 2010 version:
Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease, and may spur or exacerbate mass migration.
And in 2014:
Climate change poses another significant challenge for the United States and the world at large. As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing, and severe weather patterns are accelerating. These changes, coupled with other global dynamics, including growing, urbanizing, more affluent populations, and substantial economic growth in India, China, Brazil, and other nations, will devastate homes, land, and infrastructure. Climate change may exacerbate water scarcity and lead to sharp increases in food costs. The pressures caused by climate change will influence resource competition while placing additional burdens on economies, societies, and governance institutions around the world. These effects are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty,environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions—conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.
In addition to the most recent two QDRs, the 2015 National Security Strategy, an executive branch document, mentions climate change 13 times:
Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water. The present day effects of climate change are being felt from the Arctic to the Midwest. Increased sea levels and storm surges threaten coastal regions, infrastructure, and property. In turn, the global economy suffers, compounding the growing costs of preparing and restoring infrastructure.
The Department of Defense does not assign priority numbers to national security threats. But until 2010, the QDR never mentioned climate change. And in 2014, the mentions were of a higher order than in the previous edition. No fortune-teller is necessary to predict that in the next QDR in 2018, climate change as national security threat will receive even more attention.
Viewing national security solely through a military prism creates a twisted, myopic vision of our predicament. Those who stick to that blinkered approach, who roll their eyes at Sanders' declaration, who appropriate trillions of dollars for the Pentagon and miserly amounts to ameliorate and adapt to climate change are the ones making us insecure, nationally and globally.